Why it is said that there is under reporting of crimes in India?

It is argued that the official statistics with respect to crime in India is difficult to believe for several reasons. This is attributed to under-reporting and errors in data management.

Under Reporting of Crime?

• If we go by the official statistics India has one of the lowest incidences of crime in the world.
• The crime rate is 379.3 per 1,00,000 persons.
• Cases of dacoity, attempt to murder, robbery, rape and riot have gone down by 36.11 per cent, 16.26 per cent, 20.15 per cent, 0.78 per cent and 54 per cent respectively in 2018 as compared to the year before.

Issues with Data Collection?

• It is said that a major problem lies in the manner in which crime data are collected and compiled in India.
• The Crime data collected and published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is based on the crime reported to local police stations.
• It has to be noted that there is huge difference in Police stations getting information about crime and those incidents being recorded as an FIR.
• The difference is due to all kinds of pressures and obstacles on a complainant, especially when the nature of crime is that of sexual assault, domestic violence or when it involves family members, relatives or powerful people.
• The resistance put up by the police station personnel in registering such crimes or reducing the seriousness of the incident is often reported in the media.
• The NCRB data also fall short on information about crime victims and witnesses.

Hence it has been argued that the official crime data doesn’t portray the picture of ground reality.