The Central Vigilance Commission on 31st October 2000, introduced  the practice of observing the week starting from the birthday of Sardar  Vallabhbhai Patel as the Vigilance Awareness Week.  This was an effort at making  the employees of the  government of India organisations  aware of the dangers and harm caused by corruption, which is anti poor, anti development and anti national .

31st October was chosen as the date as it is the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the great leaders our country  who is an outstanding icon and role model for patriotism, political integrity, visionary but highly pragmatic leadership  and value based politics.  The birthday of Sardar Patel was deliberately chosen because during the freedom struggle, Sardar Patel was the leader who did  all the demanding hard work not visible in the  public  eye of raising resources and organising the political movement. This  task called for , absolute integrity, an excellent capacity for management and inspiring leadership.