Opinion| Why do more than 90% thefts in India’s metro cities go unreported

In this article for the Hindustan Times, Neha Sinha, Assistant Director, and Avanti Durani, Associate, both based at the IDFC Institute, write about the state of underreporting of crime in four major Indian cities from data based on the Safety Trends and Reporting of Crime (SATARC) survey.

Excerpts below:

“Only 6-8% of victims of theft in four major Indian cities lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police, according to a new study. The remaining 92-94% are not reflected in any official record…”

“Respondents in different cities cited varied reasons for not approaching the police to report a theft. In Delhi, 30% of respondents felt that the police would not entertain their complaint; in Mumbai, 35% didn’t think the incident was serious enough; in Chennai, 51% mentioned lack of evidence; and in Bengaluru, 35% didn’t want to get tangled in police/court procedures.”

Read the full article here.

This article was originally published in IndiaSpend. It was subsequently published in FirstPost and Business Standard.

Note: This work was done by the author/s when they were a part of the IDFC Institute and is republished here with permission.

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