Let’s build a Vigilant India

India is a developing country facing many challenges. The most detrimental of them is corruption. Corruption is like cancer. Just as cancer, due to wild uncontrolled proliferation devastates the systems of the human body causing death, corruption wreaks dysfunction and anarchy by devastating the systems of good governance and the rule of law. Corruption has been one of the major obstacles to economic, political and social progress of a country. "A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much, while so many have so little" says Bernie sanders who served as the junior US senator. All stakeholders such as government, citizens and private sector need to work together to eradicate corruption. There is no compromise to corruption . We have to fight it. India has enacted several anti - corruption laws to grapple with corruption under which public servants can be penalized or imprisoned for several years, such as "The prevention of corruption act, 1988" , "The Indian penal code, 1860", "The Lokpal and Lokayukta act, 2013", "The Black money and imposition of tax bill, 2015", "The prevention of money laundering act, 2002", etc; India is also a signatory to the UN Convention against corruption since 2005 .

Policing, policies and laws cannot completely eradicate corruption . Changing the mindset, attitudes and values of people is the best antidote . Although, government, public and various social organizations are acting as watchdogs over corruption round the clock, huge impact is yet to be created in the minds of people to desist from such anti- social activities. We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world. So, everyone of us must act responsibly. "Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained", says Helen Keller. Corruption will decline once society starts valuing wisdom, soul and culture as success or superior goal, compared to money and material investment .

Every citizen should be vigilant and commit to highest standards of honesty and integrity at all times and support the fight against corruption, for which the government of India is observing the ‘Vigilance Awareness week’ during the birthday of our late Deputy PM Mr. Sardar Vallabai Patel. People should be educated to neither take nor offer bribe. Though the bribe be small, yet the fault is great. "A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself " says Livy, a Roman historian. A person with dishonest sources of income has to spend sleepless nights due to constant fear of being exposed anytime, compared to a person having honest sources of income . To have once been a criminal is no disgrace, but to remain a criminal is the disgrace. The public should come forward to report any incident of corruption to the appropriate agency. "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression of cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people" says Martin Luther King.

Apart from all these, school students, our future generation need to know how corruption is eroding our society. It is very essential that people get sensitized about corruption so that they know how to tackle it when they face such a situation . They have to be aware that they are part of the same society, which is plagued by corruption. So, it is time to bring a change in our system. Education is what that will make us conscientious about what is right or wrong. Education is not a luxury, it is a basic right. So, education is the basic need for an impeccable foundation of a society. It's a must.

Let's all pledge to follow probity and rule of law in all walks of life and assure to remain vigilant to build a prosperous India.