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Raising questions in India
Origen: Raising questions in India

"It's a revolution": The Corruption No More movement wins a victory in India

This article originally appeared on The Guardian

Hundreds of millions of people around the world, who long accepted corruption as a given, are suddenly standing up and are insisting on corruption no more. They have impeached presidents (two so far in Brazil), and have upended legislatures.

It's a revolution’s with roots that lie in social entrepreneurship and Ashoka — going back decades . Arvind Kejriwal, who was elected an anticorruption Ashoka Fellow in 2004, recently launched a clean-up party that won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi legislature. Kejriwal stepped down from the Ashoka Fellowship in 2013 to become Delhi’s chief minister.

Under Kejriwal's administration, Delhi has rolled out a radical scheme, at a cost of $2 million, to free the city’s 18 million residents from having to visit government offices – and reduce corruption. Forty services including applications for driving licences, marriage certificates, pensions, and water connections are now home delivered by government workers who arrive by scooter equipped with an electronic tablet to complete the transactions for a nominal 70-cent fee. Citizens no longer have to wait in line for hours in chaotic, squalid government offices in the muggy heat, possibly resorting to paying a tout who promises to complete a transaction.

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Ashoka insight

The Corruption No More revolution is another proof that the world has entered the final tipping zone to the far, far better “everyone a changemaker” world that is Ashoka’s goal. Here everyone has their power, everyone is a giver.

Ashoka has been fighting corruption always. Every Ashoka Fellow says, “no,” often when doing so is hard, day in and day out. That’s what “ethical fiber,” one of Ashoka’s four criteria, means. Moreover, Fellows everywhere are enabling others to find their power and therefore also to stand up. And Fellows and the Ashoka community have steadily been building the movement that is now.