In my national language Hindi, there's a term for it. Let me describe it.
Corruption is a nuisance in India. However, corruption is of many types here. For example, if you give some money to a traffic policeman, he'll let you go even though you have broken a signal at crossroads. Now, that is bribing him. But, I'm not talking about it.
In other case, mainly policemen, rogues or hoodlums take money from local vendors i.e. small shop owners, road-side vegetable sellers etc. If the latter ones don't give, they harass them one or the other way. Hoodlums may even 'beat' them. Policemen may falsely book them. That said, those people have to give money forcefully, unwillingly.
They come to 'collect' their _______ regularly. Say weekly or monthly.
I'm searching for a term for that money they take. Precisely a noun to describe the unethical act.
Say, a road-side vegetable seller is telling to a reporter/journalist…
"You don't know sir, we live terrible life. We earn INR 5000 a month, but then INR 2000 goes to policemen/hoodlums as ______________."
Best Answer
It is "protection".
Here are various definitions (with the same meaning) from different sources:
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House