Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Jillian Woodward.
Speaker 2: And I'm Roger Bassic. Spotlight Advanced uses a special English
Speaker 2: method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand
Speaker 2: no matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: Corruption it is a problem all over the world. Corrupt
Speaker 1: government officials or dishonest people take money that they have
Speaker 1: no right to take. One common form of corruption is bribery.
Speaker 1: A bribe is an unofficial and often illegal payment of money.
Speaker 1: For example, a company may receive a big business deal
Speaker 1: from the government by secretly paying a bribe to a
Speaker 1: dishonest government official.
Speaker 2: India is one country where the bribery is a major problem.
Speaker 2: Indian citizens often have to pay small bribes for even
Speaker 2: the most basic services, services which are supposed to be free.
Speaker 2: Corrupt officials will ask Indian citizens for money for tea. However,
Speaker 2: tea is never served and people understand that when an
Speaker 2: official asks for t money, he is really asking for
Speaker 2: a bribe. A citizen who does not pay the bribe
Speaker 2: may have to wait an extra long time for important documents,
Speaker 2: building permits, and other requests.
Speaker 1: Many Indian citizens accept bribery as a normal part of life. However,
Speaker 1: fifth pillar is one organization that does not agree. It
Speaker 1: believes that individual Indians have the power to end India's
Speaker 1: culture of bribery. Today's spotlight is on Fifth Pillar and
Speaker 1: n and it's zero rupee banknote movement.
Speaker 2: Indian banknotes are printed in seven values. The smallest is
Speaker 2: five rupees, the largest is one thousand rupees. But the
Speaker 2: Fifth Pillar organization has also started to print another kind
Speaker 2: of rupee note. This note looks like the fifty rupee banknote.
Speaker 2: It is the same size, the same color, and it
Speaker 2: has the same picture of Mahatma Gandhi on the front. However,
Speaker 2: Fifth Pillar's note is very different. In place of the
Speaker 2: number fifty on the banknote, Fifth Pillar's note as a zero, yes,
Speaker 2: a zero, and Fifth Pillar's zero rupee banknote is worth
Speaker 2: just that zero rupees.
Speaker 1: It does not seem to make sense that anyone would
Speaker 1: print a zero rupee note. The note is not real money,
Speaker 1: it cannot be used to purchase anything, and it does
Speaker 1: not appear to have any real value. However, Fifth Pillar
Speaker 1: is not printing these notes for profit. Instead, it prints
Speaker 1: the notes as part of an effort to fight bribery
Speaker 1: in India. The zero rupee note contains the words end
Speaker 1: corruption at all levels, where the words Reserve Bank of
Speaker 1: India would usually be found. It also contains the statement
Speaker 1: I promised to neither accept nor give a bribe.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety seven, Satindar Mohan Bergat created the zero
Speaker 2: rupee idea. Bagat was an Indian citizen, but he lived
Speaker 2: and worked in the United States. On a trip home
Speaker 2: to India, Bagot was angered by the amount of bribery
Speaker 2: and corruption that he saw, so he decided to design
Speaker 2: and print a zero ruby note. His idea was to
Speaker 2: give the note to any person that asked him for
Speaker 2: a bribe.
Speaker 1: Ten years later, the Fifth Pillar organization learned about Bagat's idea.
Speaker 1: Fifth Pillar decided to use the zero rupee in their
Speaker 1: fight against corruption. Since two thousand and seven, Fifth Pillar
Speaker 1: has printed and given out millions of zero rupee notes.
Speaker 1: The organization prints these notes in five of India's languages, Tamil, Hindi, Canada, Malayalam,
Speaker 1: and Telugu. Fifth Pillar's president is vej anand he told
Speaker 1: CNN our.
Speaker 3: Only goal is to encourage zero acceptance of corruption in
Speaker 3: the future. Corruption is one of the greatest barriers to
Speaker 3: developing as a country. It has become a poisonous custom
Speaker 3: in our culture, and we need to defeat it.
Speaker 2: Many experts agree that bribery has a negative effect on
Speaker 2: a country's national economy, and with a smaller national economy,
Speaker 2: a country is less able to compete with larger economies. However,
Speaker 2: bribery has negative effects at a personal level. Two, the
Speaker 2: worst result of bribery is its damaging effects on poor people.
Speaker 2: Shashi Tharor is a member of the Indian government. He
Speaker 2: has a popular website on it, he wrote.
Speaker 4: Really, the biggest victims of corruption in our country are
Speaker 4: the poor. For the rich, corruption is just a minor problem.
Speaker 4: For the middle class, it can be troublesome, but for
Speaker 4: the poor it is often a tragedy.
Speaker 1: Without money to pay bribes, India's poor have little chance
Speaker 1: to get the goods and services they need to survive.
Speaker 1: This is why Fifth Pillar thinks the zero rupee note
Speaker 1: is so important. It is a simple tool that individuals
Speaker 1: poor or rich can use to fight back.
Speaker 2: Bribes are common in India, but they are illegal. In fact,
Speaker 2: officials caught accepting bribes can go to jail. The problem
Speaker 2: is that people are often afraid not to pay bribes
Speaker 2: and they feel it is useless to report bribery because
Speaker 2: bribery is also common among the police. Without support from
Speaker 2: the police, people feel alone in their struggle. However, the
Speaker 2: zero rupee note is a way people can refuse to
Speaker 2: give bribes without reporting the corrupt official. It is a
Speaker 2: way for one person to remind a corrupt official of
Speaker 2: the illegal nature of their request. The hope is that
Speaker 2: officials will change, that they will stop asking for bribes.
Speaker 1: But how is giving someone a zero rupee note different
Speaker 1: from simply refusing to pay them anything. Bribe takers are
Speaker 1: not fooled. They do not think the money is real.
Speaker 1: The zero rupee note works because bribery is a crime
Speaker 1: in India, even though it is so common, and most
Speaker 1: officials only ask for bribes because they think they will
Speaker 1: not get caught. When they are given a zero rupee note,
Speaker 1: they are ashamed and worried that they will be caught.
Speaker 1: The zero rupee notes weaken the crime by bringing it
Speaker 1: into the open. A Nand told Public Radio International.
Speaker 3: When the zero rupee is handed to an official, that
Speaker 3: makes a strong statement that the citizen is not alone
Speaker 3: in a fight against corruption.
Speaker 2: But does the zero rupee note really work? An end
Speaker 2: would say yes, Fifth Pillar has recorded many many examples
Speaker 2: of its success. One small example concerns an Indian man
Speaker 2: named Rajesh Chadlan. He told the national newspaper about a
Speaker 2: train trip from Madurai to Chennai.
Speaker 5: There were several beds in the train, but the worker
Speaker 5: did not want to give one to me. He said
Speaker 5: that he would get me a bed only if I
Speaker 5: paid a bribe. I gave him a zero rupee note.
Speaker 5: I looked at him in his eyes, letting him know
Speaker 5: that I would not pay the bribe. He looked worried
Speaker 5: and shamed, and within a few seconds he gave me
Speaker 5: a bed.
Speaker 1: The zero rupee note is working for many individual people
Speaker 1: in India like Chandran. Now the idea is spreading. Organizations
Speaker 1: in other countries are considering trying their own zero money note. Today,
Speaker 1: Fifth Pillar is starting a campaign called zero Currency to
Speaker 1: spread this idea to the rest of the world.
Speaker 2: Can such a movement of individuals change a culture? Does
Speaker 2: the zero rupee have value far beyond money or will
Speaker 2: corruption always be part of society?
Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website at www
Speaker 1: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
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Speaker 1: Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer of this program was from the Spotlight team.
Speaker 2: The producer was Dan Christman. The voices you heard were
Speaker 2: from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes
Speaker 2: were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This
Speaker 2: program is called zero for Tea Money.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,