Every day, people use money in one way or another to buy and sell goods and services. All of us must have known about and used the currency ranging from one rupee to two thousand rupees, but only some of us would have been aware that there are zero rupee notes too.
Therefore, let us understand what are these zero-rupee notes and what they serve.
Source: republicwork.com
Zero rupee notes are neither printed by RBI nor backed by them but were first issued by a Chennai-based NGO, 5th Pillar in the year 2007.
These notes were printed to fight corruption. It is given by the citizens of India to government officers who resort to unfair practices for providing services that are meant to be provided without any consideration.
Vijay Anand, the President of the 5th Pillar once faced inconvenience on his railway journey and thus decided to take a step towards eradication of corruption. He introduced the concept of the ‘Zero Rupee Note’ and issued around 25000 such currency notes and distributed them to several students around the state.
The Zero rupee note which resembles a fifty rupees note has the slogan, “Eliminate corruption at all levels,” and the pledge, “I PROMISE TO NEITHER ACCEPT NOR GIVE BRIBE” printed on the front bottom centre.
One side of the note is printed like a normal currency note and on the other side, the name and the address of the NGO are printed. The note comes in 5 different languages which include Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu.
The main aim of the 5th Pillar to introduce these notes was to abolish the practice of bribery. These notes were actively distributed in public places like bus stands, markets etc.
And the volunteers of the organisation would actively spread awareness about the issue. The people are thus encouraged to produce these notes whenever anyone demands a bribe and thus report the case.
The key factor of this campaign by the organisation was that the people were ready to use these notes. This campaign was actively supported by the citizens and they were also ready to protest against this practice of corruption.
Conclusion:
Consequently, the Abolition and eradication of corruption are very crucial to maintain the trust of the citizens in the Government and this step taken by the organisation has majorly helped in the eradication of corruption and thus helped in making our legal system more efficient and reliable.
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