» I know many people who seek government jobs just so they can earn through bribes.
» In India, from the lowest level of administration- from ward (a few blocks of town/city) councillor and village board members to governor's of states to prime minister and cabinet minister- corruption exists at every level. Every level.
My understanding is the people I to don't need to personally demand bribes from the public at all. If you expect to make a lot of money with your government job, the people with the power to put you in the job will demand you pay to get that job, right?
Interview panels are regularly challenged in court and sometimes overthrown and cancelled.
Some people even get their salary stopped, deducted, and fired for getting hired through illegal channels.
And not only in jobs where you stand to gain bribes, but also in jobs that are tenured from day one. Like High School teachers or elementary school teachers. Their salary is also much higher than their American counterparts when PPP is considered.
People bribe and get into all sorts of tenured posts.
People even get called to (already fixed) interviews even though their score in written test was lower than people who did not get the call.
As I said, challenging recruitment panels in court is really common.
Airtight systems can be created and are in place (e.g. in central state-owned bank recruitments) where no corruption happens. Where there is corruption it is because the people in power want it that way. The ruling parties want to recruit loyalists and their relatives in government ranks. They also have to pay high bribe, but being a member of the parties tells you whom to bribe.
Some say (I find it credible) that governments deliberately mess up recruitment procedure so they are sub-judice for a long period of time. This way, the government does not have to pay salary to them and instead use the money to many welfare projects and gain the votes of the masses.
Say, you want to give ₹10k to each HS student in your state so that they can buy smartphones. One smartphone ~5-10 votes in an election. Minium salary in peon rank ~₹40k. There are 2000 vacancies. You mess up the recruitment process deliberately, and the case goes to court. The case runs for 4 months to 5 years. If the case goes on for two years, you save ₹40k × 2000 × 24 ~ $25.6 million. And with that money, you can bankroll 192k smartphones amd get close to 500k votes- enough to swing a district (districts are sub-provinces in India).
There has been, and still are- several large scale conspiracies that manipulate results in entrance tests. People have died for investigating it. See [0].
Not just for a job but people also pay (or made to pay) high price to get 'transfers'. If you a are govt. school teacher or doctor you'll likely be posted at a place which is very far from your residence just so that you'll be ready to pay a hefty sum to get transferred to a nearby location.
That's even more sinister than what I had thought. So you could take two job openings in two towns and two good candidates in those two towns and get 2x the bribe just by doing the inefficient thing and sending them to the wrong post.
Now these two people are out a lot of money and in their mind they have to recoup that money somehow and the cycle of bribes continues. :/
> just by doing the inefficient thing and sending them to the wrong post.
Not the case most of the times. In each recruitment process, a central list is created based on test score and other criteria.
And candidates give choices. Most want to live in megacities like Chennai or Kolkata. Many want to be close to their homes.
Choices are awarded (or disregarded) first-come-first-serve basis on that merit list.
A few get desired postings due to their scores. Most of them end up in godforsaken places where your future children will get shitty schools and a worse environment. And very bad healthcare facilities.
So these people are eager to shell out a lot of money to get desired posting.
Indian companies and government institutions always had unions. Most of them leftist, and many apolitical (in white collar places, obviously). Nowadays unions are hijacked overnight by whichever party comes to power.
They work as a center of power. And they are the intermediaries in corruption.
Most unions have stopped caring about their ideals, and the people. They are just power brokers hungry for the fulfilment of the few.
This is how corruption becomes universal in India. There are taxicab unions, actors' unions, teachers' unions, farm-workers' union- all rules over by the ruling party. They don't give a rat's ass about the members.
They just care about a few. And they can stay in power because they are supported by the ruling party and give them huge cuts.
The primary emotion I feel when reading this is pure exhaustion. I mean, there's plenty of things wrong with this, and it sounds like a terrible way to organize society in general, but first and foremost it just feels… exhausting. I wouldn't have the stamina for it.
Many people feel the same. Some who are able immigrate to western countries where corruption is not a overt. Except the US where it’s just legal through campaign contributions and what not. Lol
Jokes apart, in your day to day life you don’t have to go through this multiple times a day in the west with every interaction you have. Of course this isn’t like every Indian goes through this daily. Depends on what they do. If you’re a small business owner, this is a large part of your daily life.
» In India, from the lowest level of administration- from ward (a few blocks of town/city) councillor and village board members to governor's of states to prime minister and cabinet minister- corruption exists at every level. Every level.
My understanding is the people I to don't need to personally demand bribes from the public at all. If you expect to make a lot of money with your government job, the people with the power to put you in the job will demand you pay to get that job, right?