India is a democratic country. It has better media freedom than many countries in Asia and Africa. Still, corruption is rampant in the country. So, I am not that much shocked to know: 'India's poorest paid over Rs 800 cr as bribe in 2007'. This shocking news has come out from a survey carried out by two NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS). This bribe has been paid by very poor people. Many of these poor people even cannot get 3 square meals a day. They had to pay the bribe for getting basic services like electricity connection, access to water, getting some documents etc.
The states that corruption has reached to an alarming level are Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
It is very easy to talk about corruption but fighting against it is not easy. I think that Indian media can play the most important role in this regard. They can contribute in two ways. Now, there are many news channels and some of them are very popular. These news channels can broadcast reports about corruption and do regular follow up. The second thing they can do is that in movies and TV serials, they can put strong message against corruption.
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