A zero rupee note is a type of fantasy money issued in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 as a means of helping to fight systemic political corruption

Political corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

. The notes are paid in protest by angry citizens to government functionaries who solicit bribes

Bribery

Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...

 in return for services which are supposed to be free. Zero rupee notes, which are made to resemble the regular 50 rupee

Rupee

The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...

 banknote

Banknote

A banknote is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. In addition to coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern fiat money...

 of India, are the creation of a non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

 known as 5th Pillar, which has distributed over 1.3 million pieces since their inception in 2007. The notes remain in current use in 2011.

Corruption in India

Main article: Corruption in India

Corruption in India

Political, bureaucratic, corporate and individual corruption in India are major concerns. A 2005 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that more than 55% of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices...

.

Bribery — the offering or solicitation of items of value to influence the actions of a government official — is recognized as a pervasive problem in India, with the 2010 report by anti-corruption watchdog organization Transparency International

Transparency International

Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...

 ranking India in 87th place on its Corruption Perceptions Index

Corruption Perceptions Index

Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...

. A 2005 study published by Transparency International India indicated that as many of 62% of Indian citizens had first-hand experience of having paid a bribe or used an illicit "contact" to get a government job done.

The 2005 Transparency International India study was the largest study of the Indian bribery problem ever undertaken, with 14,405 respondents from 20 states contributing. The survey focused on petty corruption experienced by common citizens in daily life, rather than upon the large-scale corruption of the rich and powerful.

The 2005 study exposed chronic graft problems, with substantial numbers of survey respondents reporting direct experience in being forced to pay bribes to the police (80%), land administration (48%), and judiciary (47%). Majorities of survey respondents characterized the police, judiciary, land administration, municipal government, electricity supply system, government hospital system, ration card system, water supply system, and system of assessing individual income taxes as corrupt. Fully 45% of survey respondents believed that there was corruption as well in the primary school system.

Origin of zero rupee notes

In 2007 a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 called 5th Pillar unveiled a new means for Indians to register their refusal to participate in bribery — the "zero rupee note." Closely patterned after the nation's fifty rupee notes, these documents instead included anti-corruption slogans "Eliminate corruption at all levels" and "I promise to neither accept nor give bribe."

These zero rupee notes were designed for use by Indian citizens who have been requested to pay bribes in order to obtain services that are legally free or who are hit with illicit surcharges on such routine government transactions as obtaining a driver's license

Driver's license

A driver's license/licence , or driving licence is an official document which states that a person may operate a motorized vehicle, such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus, on a public roadway. Most U.S...

. Such currency devices enable the citizen to register their opposition to the illegal request in a tangible form, "paying" the official with these valueless alternative notes.

"The note is a way for any human being to say no to corruption without the fear of facing an encounter with persons in authority," 5th Pillar has declared in an official statement.

President of 5th Pillar, Vijay Anand, expressed satisfaction with the program's efficacy: “People have already started using them and it is working. One autorick-shaw

Auto rickshaw

An auto rickshaw or three-wheeler is a usually three-wheeled cabin cycle for private use and as a vehicle for hire. It is a motorized version of the traditional pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw...

 driver was pulled over by a policeman in the middle of the night who said he could go if he was ‘taken care of’. The driver gave him the note instead. The policeman was shocked but smiled and let him go. The purpose of this is to instil confidence in people to say no to bribery."

In addition to registering the individual's protest, zero rupee notes provide corrupt officials with a sign that efforts are ongoing to fight systemic government corruption. Use of the notes is intended to shame or scare bureaucrat

Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government or corporation...

s into honest behavior by reminding these officials that laws against bribery exist.

While the zero rupee notes appear similar to a genuine Indian fifty rupee note, they are not issued by the Indian government and are thus not legal tender

Legal tender

Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries....

. Only one side of the note is printed to resemble currency so as not to run afoul of counterfeiting laws.

According to 5th Pillar, Indian citizens pay approximately £3 billion (about $4.9 billion) in bribes each year — a figure considered to be substantially understated by many government insiders.

Circulation and legacy

Satindar Mohan Bhagat, an Indian expatriate who is currently a physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 professor at the University of Maryland

University of Maryland

When the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to the University of Maryland, College Park.University of Maryland may refer to the following:...

 and also The Director of Association for India's Development, Inc. USA, is credited with originating the concept of the zero rupee note in 2001. Upon returning to India for a visit, Bhagat was frustrated by the petty extortion

Extortion

Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...

 demands of government officials that were part of daily life there and conceived of the idea of a zero rupee note as a polite way of declining participation. The charity 5th Pillar smiled upon Bhagat's idea and put it into practice.

Fifth Pillar began the campaign in the spring of 2007 with a first printing of 25,000 notes that were distributed in the Indian city of Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

. Buoyed by the success of the campaign, additional printings followed and use of the zero rupee note spread across the nation. From their inception through early 2011, 5th Pillar distributed a total of over 1.3 million zero rupee notes.

Zero rupee notes have been issued in five of the 22 scheduled languages of India, including Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu

Telugu language

Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

.

The concept of privately-issued and valueless fantasy currency for use in the fight against corruption has recently been extended from India to two other nations suffering from endemic government bribery problems, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

.

External links

• 5th Pillar Zero Rupee Note official web page, India.5thpillar.org/