Goa slum dwellers pay highest bribe money

PANAJI: Goa has only Mumbai ahead of it when it comes to seeking bribes from slum dwellers in exchange for public utilities like water and other services, reveals the India Corruption Study 2012, compiled by New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS).
Goa is the second most corrupt region in the country where extracting bribes from slum dwellers goes, states
the report.
“The household survey was conducted in the last quarter of 2011. Noticeably, around 90% of the slum dwellers in Goa were asked for a bribe at least once during the last one year,” CMS chairperson N Bhaskara Rao told TOI.
The eighth round of the study on corruption in public services, started by CMS in 2000, focuses on urban slums in nine regions—Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kanpur and Lucknow.
The research shows that Goa slum dwellers have high dependence on public services and, as compared to the other regions where the study was conducted, slum dwellers in Goa interacted the most with the state administration for public services of water, housing, municipal services and police services.
The study also indicates that in terms of proportion of slum dwellers that paid bribes and the total amount paid as bribe, Goa tops the list.
“Among the nine metropolitan and neo-metro cities, Goa emerged as the second most corrupt, next only to Mumbai, with large number of slum dwellers questioned reporting having experienced corruption at least once while seeking public services,” Rao said.
“In Goa, the bribe amount most often paid by slum dwellers to get public services like water, electricity, housing etc was Rs 700 on an average, while the corresponding figure of the nine cities combined was Rs 200,” the study reads.
“Issues of great concern for the state government should be reporting of high incidences of corruption and narrowing of gap between ‘perception’ and ‘experienced’ corruption in public services, indicating that perception is more based on firsthand experience and less on hearsay,” Rao said.
According to the 2011 Census, Goa has the highest proportion of urban population with 62.17% of the population living in urban areas. Of these more than 17% are in urban slums.
“The general perception is that there is no slum population in Goa. But with the kind of money the central government is spending on facilities like drinking water, schools and now even broadband connections to households, the physical presence of slums remains but their character has changed in a major way,” Rao said.
Study conducted through a household questionnaire based survey of urban slums in nine metropolitan and neo-metro cities
Other than Goa, survey was conducted in urban slums of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kanpur and Lucknow
On an average the bribe amount demanded for public services from slum dwellers in Goa was Rs 700, while it was Rs 200 combined in nine other regions surveyed
On scale of 0 to 80 persons, 68 experienced corruption where the service of electricity was concerned, 62 in case of water, 60 in case of police services, 45 in the public distribution system, 42 in case of municipal services, 36 for housing and 35 for health.