The notion of corruption is as old as humanity and morals; as we have heard it since biblical times. It is, in fact, the mark of corruption which in other words means human being’s distance from the good. It also means to go against one’s principles and moral values in exchange for some material benefits. The essence of corruption is not only to act against morality or to be simply dishonest, but to be dishonest in exchange for material gains. Corruption stands among things that are very negatively perceived in all the religions and beliefs and so too in our society. It is a bold hindrance to the justice and human rights, an evil at all costs and cause of inequality in economic affairs of any society.

When disparities among individual’s income and wealth occur, there are definite signs of corruption and when economic inequality raises its head, the thrust can be because of corruption. Although some level of inequality in income and expenditure of a person may be natural or inherited but mostly corruption is the main cause of it.

What if a person incurs more monthly expenses than his/her income or vice versa? In both the situations economic equality gets hindered but expenditure more than the income can lead to some kind of legal borrowings or wrong doing whereas income more than the expenditure can lead to financial indiscipline or money laundering or liquidity crunch in the market. The imbalance in the economy leads to inflation and inflation badly affects poverty.

Corruption as a subject is a two-way phenomenon, one who gives it and the other who takes it. The giver wants his/her job to be done on priority or out of queue and the taker facilitates it by accepting the bribe. This course of action manipulate the system in place and imbalances the economic equality. Corruption can be moral, financial, or materialistic and each one is responsible to lash the merit of a deserving one.

“Cut your coat according to your cloth” is an English phrase that has never impressed the greedy people who are always dreaming to have more extra cloth by all or any of the means to wear a coat that actually he can’t buy by his/her income resources. There is the birth of corruption and after that the economic inequality. The corruption lead to an uneven distribution of of wealth as small businesses face unfair competition. According to a World Bank report, the countries with high level of corruption have average income less by one-third of the countries with low level of corruption. Also level of corruption in countries with emerging market economies is much higher than of developed countries. It also leads to monopolies in the economy and monopolists don’t feel competition and fix the prices of the commodities as per their choices.

Corruption also encourages illegal businesses and tax erosion that affects the overall economy of a country. It leads to inefficient allocation of resources that lowers the living standard of the people who are habitual of paying bribes for nothing or for what was not actually their right.

In order to stop the economic inequality in any society, people primarily have to avoid moral corruption, understand the value of honesty and respect the religious faith and belief. After understanding and practicing the moral and ethical values of humanity, one cannot ever think of a crime like corruption. Eradicating this grave nuisance from the society will result respect to human values, justice to the work culture and removal of hindrance in economic equality. 

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