Coming clean, change starts with us

By Kavita N. Ramdas*

Earlier this year, my parents, a retired Admiral from the Indian Navy and the former Chair of the International Greenpeace board joined thousands of other middle class Indians in a mass hunger strike to protest corruption in India.  The leader of this movement was Anna Hazare, a man in his seventies.  My parents have always been socially conscious and very involved in social justice movements from protecting the environment to advancing education, but this was the first time that they had participated in a mobilization on issues of endemic corruption.

It seemed natural, therefore, to me that I should accept the World Economic Forum’s invitation to join the Global Agenda Council on India, which presciently has decided to focus on the New Model for Transparency and Inclusive Governance in India.  With an estimated US$ 1 trillion paid in bribes each year, corruption is one of the most pervasive obstacles to social and economic development.

Corruption is perceived as the third most problematic factor for doing business in India, and India’s ranking was a dismal 87^th in the 2010 Transparency International report.  It seemed critical to my colleagues from private industry, the social sector, and government that we take a strong stance on an issue that does not simply hurt business, but is profoundly undemocratic and reinforces inequality in India.  For it is the poor who who suffer the most from corruption at every level.  And, corruption is not merely a challenge in government – the private sector and non-profit sectors are equally tarnished and all of us need to take collective responsibility to “be the change” we hope to see in this matter.

During the 2010-11 term, the India council collaborated with the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) to increase the number of Indian signatories companies. The council managed get four companies to sign on to the Initiative. This term, the council wants to showcase what India has done successfully to move towards the goal of greater transparency and more democracy. The India council will work on developing a compendium of best practices and innovative solutions (success stories) in India from the perspective of transparency and inclusive governance. It also determined to make a strong effort to simultaneously strengthen its ties with its partner the Global Agenda Council on Pakistan.  As neighbors, India and Pakistan, have much to share and teach one another about a myriad of issues and they both struggle with corruption across many sectors.

It is our hope that we can help catalyze amongst our own group and with our networks a new way of thinking about transparency and inclusive governance in India.  We see this as an opportunity to be advocates for thinking “different”, as Steve Jobs once said.

If we make even a small difference, inshallah, perhaps next year, my parents will spend their summer visiting their grandchildren and not protesting corruption in marches and hunger fasts!

*Kavita N. Ramdas is a visiting scholar, Stanford University, USA and a member of the Global Agenda Council on India.