Anil Jain’s car was towed away by the police for no rhyme or reason in Chennai. He went to the local police station to claim it back. Jain was asked to pay a fine of Rs 800. After paying the amount, he asked for a receipt. But the police flatly refused to give it to him. When his pleas fell on deaf ears, Jain contacted 5th Pillar, an online portal that fights against corruption. A volunteer from the organisation intervened, and the police —realising that things could go against them if the anti-corruption forum took up the matter — asked Jain to pay a nominal amount of Rs 150 against a receipt.

Karthikeyan, a septuagenarian who lives in a remote village in Tamil Nadu, too had no choice but to approach the organisation when he failed to get a pension under a central government pension scheme for BPL (below poverty line) persons even after repeated application. He was turned away by officials at the pension office several times. When he contacted 5th Pillar, the latter filed an RTI on his behalf. Kathikeyan got the pension in due course.

Chennai-based 5th Pillar is not the only online forum of its kind in India that is dedicated to helping ordinary people fight against bribery and corruption in their everyday lives. A host of such forums in the new media is now making their presence felt. In addition to 5th Pillar, Janaagraha, a Bangalore-based non-profit organisation, recently launched a website called ipaidabribe.com (IPAB). The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has also decided to do its bit for commoners with the introduction of its Vigeye (acronym for Vigilance Eye) portal last month.

A group of students at IIM-Ahmedabad is also working on an anti-corruption hotline. Besides, in response to the recent Commonwealth Games scam, leading social activists in India — Swami Agnivesh, Anna Hazare, Father Cedric Prakash and Kiran Bedi, to name a few — have joined forces to launch an anti-corruption front, indiaagainstcorruption.org, that aims to root out corruption in high offices. “It’s a citizens’ forum against corruption,” says Swami Agnivesh, one of the founding members of the movement, adding that the campaign will intensify in the coming days.

Both 5th Pillar and IPAB provide a platform for citizens to share their experiences of dealing with corruption in government offices and seek to educate citizens about how they could seek redress for the way they have been forced to pay a bribe. On the other hand, Vigeye enables people to register their complaints online and even upload photos or audio clips that show any bribery exchange.

“We help victims of corruption in many ways. Some of the people who have approached us have already paid bribes and want advice from us, which we provide,” says Raghunandan Thoniparambil, a former bureaucrat and one of the founders of IPAB, who runs a column called “Ask Raghu” on the website, advising people how to avoid paying bribes. He says that the website also has a wide range of FAQs (frequently asked questions) and service-related fora in which citizens can obtain critical information. “We stop short of launching prosecutions based upon the reports received on the website because we do not seek the names or any other details of the persons reporting, or those reported against. Our focus is on analysing the corrupt act so that we can recommend reforms in the system and engage with any arm of the government to improve services.”

A. Subramani, director, operations, 5th Pillar, says that his forum is primarily concerned with every little issue that an ordinary Indian faces in his or her daily life. “We concentrate on very mundane things like getting ration cards or passports and try to help people find out why there have been delays or denials in procuring such basic documents,” he says. “We train people in using RTI. Sometimes we file RTIs on complainants’ behalf. And we also liaise with the CVC in reporting against corrupt officials.”

5th Pillar also takes its campaign beyond the confines of the portal. It has so far visited 450 colleges across the country to educate students about the basic reasons for corruption and how to find solutions against corrupt practices. “You have to catch them young and inculcate values in students first,” says Subramani.

A recent Transparency International survey on the perceived level of corruption ranks India 87th among 178 nations. Anti-corruption activists and experts on social issues say that the recent spate of scams covering almost every aspect of governance is perhaps the reason so many anti-graft platforms have sprung up.

But do these online forums spark off activism in the real world? It’s very easy to vent ire in the cyber world sitting in front of a computer, but will that change things?

“It does help if an online portal can provide expert advice, reduce information asymmetry, connect people with the right officials responsible for providing clean administration,” says Anil K. Gupta, professor, IIM-Ahmedabad. “These forums can also boost the confidence of the people — one can live without paying bribes and there are others who are willing to extend a helping hand.”

Under Gupta’s guidance, a team of IIM-A students are developing a hotline to receive complaints against corruption. “Students are studying the existing system of checking consumer complaints in the municipal corporation and then trying to plug the missing links. This can point to the way to avoid corruption because of tracking delays or information asymmetry,” he says. “Our students have studied many portals and I must say that a lot of good work is being done by many of them.”

But Gupta doubts whether the existing anti-corruption sites are really getting an overwhelming response. “One reason could be the lack of expert panels which can respond to complainants and help in redressing their grievances.”

But the portals claim otherwise. “More than 1,60,000 people from over 160 nations have visited our site over the past six months. Our Facebook forum has 4,400 fans; 2,968 people have reported about their bribery experiences,” reveals Raghunandan of IPAB. 5th Pillar says that it has had a 100 per cent success rate in redressing grievances.

Nevertheless, experts advise caution. Gupta feels that one needs a lot of resources because voluntary support may dwindle over time. But the portals are upbeat. “Sometimes it’s the people who do not want to fight back, thinking that the system cannot change. They have to get rid of this mindset,” says Subramani.

And these portals are helping them do just that.