India has been given the dubious distinction of the highest bribery rate among 16 Asia Pacific countries surveyed by Transparency International/TI
Nearly 7 in 10 Indians accessing public services paid a bribe.
This is in contrast to the least corrupt country, Japan where only 0.2% of respondents bribed individuals.
Close to half of the respondents from India were positive about the government's efforts to combat bribery.
Even as the government's efforts to tackle bribery were appreciated, slightly more than 40% of the respondents viewed that corruption had increased over the past twelve months.
63% of the respondents in India also felt that they as individuals had the power to fight corruption.
The Global Corruption Barometer for the Asia Pacific Region was released by TI on March 7, in Berlin.
Approximately 90 crore people, or just over one in four, across 16 countries in Asia Pacific, including some of its biggest economies like India and China, are estimated to have paid a bribe to access public services.
For its report - People and Corruption: Asia Pacific, part of the Global Corruption Barometer series, TI surveyed nearly 22,000 people in these countries about their recent experiences with corruption.
India was followed closely by Vietnam where around two thirds (65%) had paid a bribe when accessing public services.
Across the Asia Pacific region, just 22% of the respondents thought that corruption had decreased while 40% of the respondents (41% in India) were of the option that it was on the rise.
In mainland China, 73% of the respondents felt that the level of corruption had worsened. This was the highest of any country surveyed.
Nearly 73% of those who paid a bribe in India were from the poorer section of society, in Pakistan and Thailand this percentage was 64% and 46% respectively.
Surprisingly a reverse trend was found in some countries like China, where the richer sections were more likely to pay a bribe.
In India, respondents reported the highest bribery incident in procuring government healthcare services and even identification related documents.
Nearly 59% of the respondents had paid a bribe for such services.
Bribes paid for education were next on the list with 58% having reported doing so.
TI: Know More- Headquarters: Berlin
- Founded: 4 May 1993
- Type of business: International non-governmental organization
- Founders: Peter Eigen, George Moody Stuart, Fritz Heimann, more
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