- I Paid A Bribe
- 13 years ago
- 1249 views
Had to bribe to prove I am my son's dad !
- Municipal Services
- Birth Certificate
- Paid INR 1,800
My baby boy was born in last week of Dec 2011. There were serious complications with both my wife 3 days b4 delivery and then for 4 days after with my boy admitted to NICU of another children's hospital within 3 hrs of birth. After a tense week running around both hospital and home, finally both recovered and we were happy to get discharged. The hospital made us fill the form for applying Birth Certificate while my wife n baby were waiting outside the hospital to leave for home. In the hurry, I filled my name without my middle name on the form.
The hospital sent the form to municipal office and gave us a slip after few days. I realized the mistake and thought we would request the Municipal officer to advise us and we will do the formalities to get my middle name added on his (yet to be issued) Birth Certificate. As I had to leave Indore for work back in Blore, my father-in-law visited the Municipal office.
He was told there is no way the name can be changed even if we provide all ID proofs like PAN card, Passport, Marriage Certificate, Letter from the maternity hospital etc.
I was sure there got to be a standard procedure for name correction as what if the hospital staff makes a mistake in the form ? It can't be that if someone makes a mistake (even if it's yourself) in filling a form, your baby is stuck with incomplete father's name on his Birth Certificate. But, the offier didn't budge. So, my father in law had to find a contact who works in the Municipalty. Even he couldn't help convince the officer unless we paid up a bride of Rs 1800.
I wasn't surprised when the correction was made within a day after my father in law gave in and paid up because his business was getting affected due to all the running around he had to do for 3-4 days.
Being a strong supported of ********** Hazare's movement who even shut down my office and attended the Bangalore Jan Lokpal rallies with all my colleagues, I feel so so bad that we had to pay a bribe to get the first ever official, govt issue id for my baby boy. Every time I think about the incident, my head drops in shame.
My dad's generation failed us by letting corruption go unchecked in this country. My generation has took it upon ourselves to fight the corrupt and rid our country of this disease so that my son's generation inherits a great country to live in.
This incident has made my resolve even stronger. Next time someone demands a bribe, I swear to god, I will shut all the work I am doing, and do a dharna and fast at the govt office till they provide the service which is my right as a citizen. I will try to gather some support from fellow citizens and hopefully even get some TV reporters to cover the event. Lets give these hard(ly) working, corrupt goons the 'limelight' they deserve.