Airport staff not to have Pant Pockets : Nepal experiments a novel way to curb Bribery

Most developing countries are plagued with one common problem “BRIBERY”. Wherever you go and whatever you do – you’ll need to shell out some bribe to get your work done. It gets more rampant in countries that have a less stable economy. Though India and China boast of stable economy but they beg to differ on the issue of Bribe.

Atleast in country’s like India and Sri Lanka I find some good government officials. Airports are the most famous of all locations where bribing is very rampant. Tourists and travellers are always in a hurry and that’s when the Bribery Virus strikes. When you fly back into the country your luggage is subject to just so many gizzmo’s and the end result of all that is you end up paying more bribe. There are many officials who would directly ask you for the Moolah (a local dialect for cash). But Nepal seems to have found a very intuitive method to curb on bribery at Airports – Ban all Airport staff from having trousers with Pockets!!

Though it may sound crazy to hear at first, but I am sure it will deter the officials from exhorting bribe to some extend. What will the officer do with the bribe he collects? Sans pockets he can’t store the booty anywhere.

Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport has now officially banned pants with pockets for all its employees. Nepal is a tiny mountain state surrounded by India and China. The economy relies mainly on tourism but due to the recent turmoils and the fall of the monarchy – it is finding very hard to come back on it’s knees. Surely the officials don’t want to deter the prospective tourists due to the bribe hungry airport officials. Let’s see how this shapes out to be – hope it becomes a success for other airports to follow too.