I Paid a bribe
Description
IPaidABribe.com is an initiative to tackle corruption by tapping into the collective energy of citizens, almost everyone of whom is either a victim, perpetrator or beneficiary, or a combination of these. It primarily operates as a website, which is a citizen driven mechanism for tracking bribe payment activity, as also instances of when people resisted bribe payments or did not have to pay bribes because of good government systems or good people within the government systems. Citizens reports on the nature, number, pattern, types, locations and frequency of actual corrupt acts and values of bribes will add up to a valuable knowledge bank that will contribute to a reduction in bribe payments We do not target individuals or organisations. Ipaidabribe.com believes in systemic change and hence our solutions lie more on taking the processes online and terminating human interface and thereby reducing corruption. We also believe in educating citizens on the government processes and services and believe that the government websites can be a vital source of such information provided it is informative, detailed and user friendly. Our stand is that we want to engage positively with any arm of the government to improve services and reduce the possibility of corruption.
What we deliver
By providing a place for citizens to report, as well as by analyzing the information, ipaidabribe.com aims to: Heighten citizen awareness about the nature and spread of bribe-related exchanges and promote a purposive public debate that pressurizes public officials to reduce and eventually eliminate corruption, Help citizens to recognize, avoid and tackle bribe paying situations, Identify analyze the workflows within corruption prone public services, which results in suggestions on systemic reform directed at entrenching simpler and more transparent processes, more consistent standards of law enforcement and better vigilance and regulation.
Whom we deliver
The website essentially serves as a one-stop-shop for corruption. While the platform allows the user to report bribes paid, resisted and situations where he encountered honest officials who streamlined processes for him, it also serves as a platform for users to learn about how not to pay bribes through the various FAQs on the platform. The website also looks at educating people about government processes. From corruption news, advice column and a forum to discuss various corruption-related topics, ipaidabribe.com is a platform for anyone and everyone who has faced corruption, wants to know about it and who wants to fight it.
Why is the project unique?
There no such website which uses crowd-sourcing as a method to fight corruption which makes ipaidabribe.com unique.
Roadmap
While ipaidabribe.com may have made its mark online, we are acutely aware that we are accessible only to 6% of the Indian population. Our next step is to take our services to larger numbers of people through mobiles. Ipaidabribe.com believes that corruption thrives due to a lack of knowledge of people about how to access government services as a matter if right. We aim to educate people through the FAQ section on our website. While we continuously update the FAQ section with new questions and answers, we are working towards developing a National repository of FAQ. With this project, we plan to provide information on government services under each department for each state in India. This extensive project includes in depth research and analysis and we plan to mobilize volunteers across the country to undertake this project. Ipaidabribe.com intends to be a one stop shop on news on corruption, including presenting the most topical information of the day on corruption, informative and entertaining videos explaining complex issues and analysis of current issues. The ipaidabribe.com blog serves as an exchange for diverse opinions; perspectives and events related to corruption, be it a newsy piece on the march against corruption in Bangalore or an in-depth analysis of the Lokpal bill in a seven part series, ipaidabribe.com provides all of it on one platform. With these plans on our plate, we hope to effectively mobilize the government and citizens in working together towards a corruption-free society.
Contact
Awanti Bele
Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy
4th floor, UNI building, Thimmiah Road, Vasanthnagar
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
560052
URL/Website – http://janaagraha.org/
