"Everyone should listen to their conscience before doing anything. Youth and children should come forward and help in eradicating corruption from the country," Kalam said while delivering valedictory address at the National Summit on National Value Crisis and Redressal in New Delhi.
He also said a powerful independent commission on the lines of the one in place in Hong Kong could help in curbing corruption.
"I got the information through the Internet and from great scholars about the Hong Kong experience. Hong Kong, 40 years back, was described as what we witness in
many areas in the Indian scene. But today, Hong Kong is free from corruption.
"People told that this happened through their establishment of a powerful independent commission against corruption," he said.
The independent commission in Hong Kong worked on a three-pronged approach by strict enforcement of stringent laws, prevention of corruption and community participation against corruption through continuous education, he said.
Kalam said he had already recommended this method to the government to implement in India.
He recalled an incident in his life when his father beat him up "severely" while accepting a gift from a stranger when the former became the panchayat president of Rameswaram island in Tamil Nadu
