India has long been credited by the United Nations with the recognition as one of the world's most corrupt countries. One may argue that corruption and cheating are two sides of the same coin. Under the UN definition, corruption concerns governance in a civil society. It relates to functioning of the government, public institutions and regulatory systems. On the contrary, cheating could involve anyone. The systemic corruption encourages cheating at all levels. In a society where punishment is purchasable and transferable, human values lose meaning and social reform suffers.

Even as the investigation into the alleged loot of Rs. 22 crore from PF deposits by government (justice department) employees by a group of judges in Uttar Pradesh last year moves at a snail's pace, one of the key witnesses to the scandal died recently under mysterious circumstances. This is not unusual in India to weaken the process of justice in criminal cases. In the much publicized Rs. 900-crore fodder scam in Bihar, involving the then chief minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, most key witnesses or approvers died in various circumstances in the course of an official probe. The same is the story in the Rs. 30,000-crore Telghi stamp paper forgery case in Maharashtra, involving some top politicians, police and people in the state's judicial administration. Telghi cheated thousands of people and the state by selling fake stamp papers. The Delhi Municipal Corporation had thousands of ghost employees on its pay role for years to rob the exchequer of several crores of rupees of tax-payers' fund. The matter is now under investigation. Building departments of municipal corporations in all metro and mini-metro cities are fountainheads of corruption, which not only encourages illegal and unsafe constructions but also plays havoc with the life of people as the cases of fire and house collapse are on the rise - from Mumbai's shanty town Dharavi to Kolkata's posh Park Street - in all crowded old cities.

The existence of stringent central and state laws and the departments of weights and measures in every district of the country and their being backed by the appropriate regulatory authorities, armed with A large number of inspectors and assistants, have not prevented wide-spread faking of weights and measures by the industry and trade to cheat the common man every day, or may be every moment, everywhere. The crime, which is part of India's trillion-dollar parallel economy and is never taken seriously by the government, is as heinous as faking currency notes. While food and drug adulteration have become commonplace, rampant cheating of patients by practiSing medical doctors in association with rogue hospitals, nursing homes, health centres, testing laboratories and clinics, and drug companies and their distributors are hurting daily the life of the poorest of the poor as well as the rich. These unscrupulous doctors and drug distributors do not spare even infants and innocent children as the latest report published jointly in the 'Indian Journal of Medical Ethics' by an eminent paediatrician, Dr. Rakesh Lodha, of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, and Dr. Anurag Bhargav of Jan Swasthya Sahyog, Chhattisgarh, revealed. The report said that vaccine manufacturers offer huge commissions to doctors to push vaccines to children, for which these doctors charge highly overpriced 'MRP' rates printed on these vaccines from their parents. This is done when a doctor is pushing a vaccine that is not provided under the universal immunization programme. Many vaccines require three or more doses per child and the administering doctors could make as much as Rs. 1,800 or more per child, out of the difference between the actual price at which the vaccines are supplied to doctors and the MRP printed on the packs.

Even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cheats the public by not protecting the value of its currency notes at times of inflation by exercising its monetary control authority, which should generally keep the bank rate at least at par with the inflation rate, to help big business, banks and, also, the government, the biggest of borrowers. Not all Indians are paid dearness allowance by their employers or customers. Given the current rate of inflation, retail investors deserve deposit rates of at least 12 per cent from banks. In a somewhat similar situation two years ago, government banks offered 11 per cent or more on term deposits to retail investors. Ironically, RBI governor does not mean what is printed on every currency note 'I promise to pay the bearer the sum of' the denomination printed on the rupee note. The promise is just a ritual. Until the end of 2009-10, banks were allowed to cheat depositors even on savings rate computation.

The general public is getting cheated all the time. Sadly, a large section of the public allows themselves to be cheated in the absence of an effective and helpful machinery for the redress of grievances. It is not even easy to lodge complaints against cheating or injustice in India, leave alone pursuing the case which could be both costly and time consuming and could invite harassment from both the concerned cheats and incompetent and corrupt regulatory authorities. If the matter is to be dealt by the police, complainants are often treated like the accused and complaints can become a ruse for extortion by the police. A visit to the police, regulatory authority and the judicial court with complaints could be really frustrating. As a result, the people are forced to live with cheating and corruption. And, that emboldens the professional cheats and the corrupt. Even to get small personal entitlements such as tax refund, ration card, driving license, insurance claim, housing plan sanction, mutation certificate, municipal water connection, etc, one has to engage an agent or middleman for a fee which he shares with a particular issuing authority. Increasingly, cheating is getting institutionalized and even getting a respectable stamp of 'business' in many cases.

With the economy liberalised and service operators - from more complex financial to cellphone and retail trade - making so-called attractive money-making or money-saving 'offers' and 'plans' almost every week, consumers are taken for a ride by corporations through 'innovative' marketing and advertisement making false and atrocious claims to impress the innocent or the less inquisitive. All of them are into cheating though with some sophistication and, as usual, with little interference from regulatory authorities. How many investors in pension plans run by HDFC, ICICI, etc and marketed under such catchy slogans as 'sar uthake jiyo' (live life with your head high) are told by the concerned operators that 40 per cent of their first premium payment is gobbled up by the fund managers as management fee, which means the investor's first year's contribution gets automatically depreciated by 40 per cent, and a 20 per cent projected return on investment in the long run includes a service charge of around 12 per cent? Similarly, 'offers' by cellular mobile phone operators are misleading. All offers are linked with advance cash deposit and for limited period. They are designed in such a fashion that operators always stand to gain more than customers.

The increasing trend of institutional cheating, as against individual cheating, and mafia raj are a matter of great concern. If they are left to grow at the present rate, the Indian society, where nearly 70 per cent of the population are underpaid and exploited, is bound to get further divided on the class (economic) lines. The best and the most effective way to fight institutional cheating and corruption are to form consumer forums and strong social or community resistance groups. A few such groups are working in parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala with reasonable success. Local or regional public awareness campaign could also be of great help. Unfortunately, for the present, the collective will to fight corruption and cheating is lacking in the country. (IPA Service)