"If you are born into a world ruled by corruption- What would you do?" says a documentary on Kiran Bedi, Yes Madam, Sir. The line raises many questions on our mind, that how corruption has become a part of normal life. This is more of a black patch in the society that has a terrible impact on the economy as well as causes huge social instability and riots at times. But, as they say, be the change you want to see- here are two organisations, fighting the oddities related to political reforms to make India 'clean', in the true sense of the term.
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) & National Election Watch (NEW) recently analysed the self-sworn affidavits of current Ministers in State Assemblies and Union Territories across India. A total of 609 Ministers out of 620 have been analysed across 29 State Assemblies and 2 Union Territories.
Please find below a detailed summary of the survey that was released by Association for Democratic Reform's Website on August 5, 2016:
- Ministers with Criminal Cases: Out of the 609 ministers analysed from state assemblies, 210 (34%) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves. Out of the 78 Union council of ministers analysed, 24 (31%) have declared criminal cases against themselves.
- Ministers with Serious Criminal Cases: 113 (19%) ministers from State assemblies have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc. Out of the 78 ministers analysed from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, 14 (18%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
- State Wise- Highest Percentage of Ministers with Serious Criminal Cases: 9 (82%) out of 11 ministers from Jharkhand, 4 (57%) out of 7 ministers from Delhi, 9 (53%) out of 17 ministers from Telangana, 18 (46%) out of 39 ministers from Maharashtra, 11(39%) out of 28 ministers from Bihar, and 2 (25%) out of 8 ministers from Uttarakhand have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their self-sworn affidavits.
- Ministers with Charges related to Murder: 7 ministers from State Assemblies have declared cases related to murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302).
- Ministers with Charges related to Communal Violence: 6 ministers have declared cases related to communal violence.(Indian Penal Code Sections-153A, 295 and 295A).
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- Average Assets of Ministers: The average of assets per minister from state assemblies is Rs 8.59 Crores. As compared to this, the average assets of the Union Council of Ministers are Rs 12.94 Crores.
- Average Assets of Ministers with declared criminal cases from State Assemblies vs Average Assets of Ministers with no Criminal Cases: The average assets of Ministers with declared criminal cases is Rs 9.52 Crores. As compared to this, the average assets of ministers with no criminal cases are Rs 8.10 Crores.
- States with Highest Average Assets of Ministers: The state with the highest average assets per minister is Andhra Pradesh(20 ministers) with average assets of Rs 45.49 crores, followed by Karnataka (31 ministers) with average assets of Rs 36.96 crores and Arunachal Pradesh (7 ministers) with average assets of Rs 32.62 crores.
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- Gender details of Ministers: Out of 609 ministers, 51 (8%) ministers are women. The highest number of women ministers are from Madhya Pradesh 5(17%) followed by Tamil Nadu with 5(15%).
*Some ministers may be exempted from filing Income Tax Returns.
- Ministers who have not declared ITR: Out of 609 ministers analyzed, 134 ministers (22%) have declared that they did not file Income Tax Returns.
- States with Highest Percentage of Crorepati Ministers: All State Council of Ministers analyzed from Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Puducherry are 100% crorepatis. They are followed by 97% of ministers of Karnataka and 92 % of ministers from Rajasthan, Goa, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh who have also declared assets valued at Rs 1 crore and above.
- Crorepati Ministers: Out of the 609 ministers analysed from State Assemblies, 462 (76%) are crorepatis.
- States with Lowest Average Assets of Ministers: The state with the lowest average assets of ministers is Tripura (12 ministers) with average assets of Rs 31.67 lakhs, followed by Kerala (19 ministers) with average assets of Rs 78.72 lakhs andManipur (11 ministers) with average assets of Rs 83.92 lakhs.
- It is to be noted that there are no women ministers in Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Punjab, and Telangana Assemblies.
The Pie chart reveals the literacy rate among the number of ministers analyzed. Source: ADR
Graph showing the age group of ministers. Source: ADR
Established in 1999, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) aims to improve governance and strengthen democracy by continuous work in the area of electoral and political Reforms. Removing corruption and decriminalizing the political process is one of the principal focus of the organisation.
On the other hand, National Election Watch (NEW) is a coalition of civil society organizations that began operations surrounding the 1997 Sierra Leonean Presidential elections. Their main objectives are: Observing not only the polling day but the entire electoral process, deploying an Observer in every polling station and preparing a situational report with appropriate recommendations.
Read the case details of the survey at- www.adrindia.org