Corruption

We have been hearing this word "Corruption" since ages now, and in last 1 yr we have heard it so many times that even my 3 yr old son Ishaan says we should not do corruption and can recognize Anna Hazaare. But most important question is do we understand what is actually meant by the word corruption, its a term which covers a very broad meaning and I think it was never clearly defined by anyone.

Lets take an example, think at the end of every scenario which one is a bribe.

1. A 5 yr old kid gets 2 chocolates everyday for going to school and finishing his homework on time.

2. One day the family has to go out for dinner, so the father asked his kid to finish his homework 1 hr before the usual time, to motivate him he promised the kid for an extra chocolate if he is successful.

3. Another day this kid got a lot of homework, it was unusual but he still had to complete all so father offered an additional chocolate to motivate him to complete everything on time.

4. Soon getting more than usual homework became a daily routine and father had to give an additional chocolate to finish the work everyday.

5. One day when kid got usual homework but he was feeling very lazy to complete it on time, father decide to offer him an additional chocolate to motivate him to finish it on time.

6. One day when kid got usual homework but did not complete it on time, still father gave him his regular 2 chocolates.

7. One day when kid got usual homework, he did all his work on time but most of his answers were incorrect, still he got 2 chocolates from his father.

8. One day when kid got usual homework, he asked one of his friend to complete his work and offered him 1 chocolate out of the 2 that he will receive from his father to complete it on time.

9. One day the kid did not go to school, did not complete homework still got 2 chocolates from his father.

10. One day his father asked him to do an additional work that was not a part of his homework and not to worry about the homework and still get an additional chocolate.

We might have faced each of this situation or could think about a real life example for each of these. Few of these scenarios dont fall into the category of corruption, they are similar to salaries or rewards that a person gets for doing his job on time, few others are legally correct but ethically/morally wrong, whereas other few scenarios are both unethical and illegal. But every person will have a different opinion and everyone would draw this line at a different place. Few of us would feel comfortble doing unethical things which are at least legally correct whereas others would even consider doing illegal things for personal benefits if the law is not too strict. But the most important thing is to know and think what exactly we are doing and to keep ourselves aware. Think about these points and the category they fall into, next time when you come accross a real life scenario where you dont know if whatever you are doing is corruption or not.