 |
| Picture for representation. (Photo credit: @ACA_India https://twitter.com/ACA_India) |
Corruption is the order of the day. Linguists say that the use of word “corruption” has gained momentum since 1985. The usage graph shows an accelerating trend worldwide.
Corruption simply means decay or deviation from what it ought to be. Certain words, concepts and thoughts undergo corruption through ages. But, such corruption does not bother living of humans. When corruption is effected by humans deliberately for personal gains through misuse or abuse of her/his official position, such a conduct is worrisome for the entire nation.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” He believed corruption begins in mind. My vision of a ‘Corruption-free India’ is an endorsement of Mahatma Gandhi’s thought. Such an India will not be governed by people, who would justify corrupt conduct in the name of “need of the family” or with answers like, “everyone does it”.
Schools and parents have the biggest role to play in building a corruption-free India. Parents and people in parenting positions are the first teachers of all individuals. They ensure continuity not only of the genes but also of societal behaviour.
"I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet."
Mahatma Gandhi
If a child sees parents telling a lie to evade some uneasy questions or to escape a situation what they perceive as embarrassing, she learns the same pattern of behaviour and thus gets her first training in corruption. This training may come from watching parents asking the kids to tell a visitor that “papa is not home” or when she sees them saying no to her demands on the pretext of having no money but buying groceries or vegetables the same evening for household.
The young ones are too immature to differentiate the value of money against basic needs like vegetables and a toy. She may grow up to learn the difference, but enroute she also got the training of how to feign corruption for a lifetime. Unfortunately, India is parenting millions of children for corruption.
An Indian poet-sage said that a fish should not be trained to climb a tree...
Schools are not designed to nurture talent of children. The curriculum is same for all children of different inclinations, interests and abilities. It is only in high school education, children are given some sort of freedom to choose subjects in bunches.
An Indian poet-sage said that a fish should not be trained to climb a tree and judged on the basis of its performance to climb the tallest vegetation.
...change will come through reverse-corruption...
Since kids are different but are asked to perform the same task, a majority of them turn to tweak the rules of the game called education to attain the desirable results. After all, no one loves embarrassment. Corruption saves them from it in schools and they don’t see using the same technique to succeed rest of their lives.
Corruption as a value system must change. This change will come through reverse-corruption. If corruption is the order of the day, this order needs to be corrupted by all – the parents, the teachers, the government, the politician, the bankers, the traders and most of all I.
