<p>That is good news, say the authors of the study carried out at the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) at the University of Warwick in the UK, Harvard Business School and the International Monetary Fund.<br /><br />The authors argue that the increase is due to greater reporting of crimes against women, rather than greater incidence of crimes against them, a release from the University of Warwick said.<br /><br />The research examined the impact of the Panchayati Raj reform passed in 1993, which required Indian states to set aside one third of all member and leader positions in local government councils for women.<br /><br />Panchayati Raj was implemented in different years by different states given their own election cycles, and is one of the largest experiments with quotas for female political representation anywhere in the world.<br /><br />The researchers found that documented crimes against women rose by an average of 44 per cent after women entered local government, while rapes rose by 23 per cent and kidnapping of women showed a 13 per cent increase in the post-reform period up until 2004.<br /><br />However, there has been no significant effect on crimes not specifically targeted against women, such as kidnapping of men, theft or public order offences.<br />The researchers believe there are two reasons behind the surge in reported crimes against women. First, greater numbers of female politicians make the police more responsive to crimes against women.<br /><br />Since the quota legislation, the number of arrests has also increased significantly, particularly for cases dealing with kidnapping of women. Secondly, women victims who encounter more sympathetic women leaders would feel more encouraged to report crimes.<br /><br />Dr Anandi Mani, associate professor of economics at CAGE, said: "The first thing we want to point out is that this is good news. The reason it's happening is because more crimes are being documented than were before the reforms - it's not an increase in incidences of crime".</p>
<p>That is good news, say the authors of the study carried out at the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) at the University of Warwick in the UK, Harvard Business School and the International Monetary Fund.<br /><br />The authors argue that the increase is due to greater reporting of crimes against women, rather than greater incidence of crimes against them, a release from the University of Warwick said.<br /><br />The research examined the impact of the Panchayati Raj reform passed in 1993, which required Indian states to set aside one third of all member and leader positions in local government councils for women.<br /><br />Panchayati Raj was implemented in different years by different states given their own election cycles, and is one of the largest experiments with quotas for female political representation anywhere in the world.<br /><br />The researchers found that documented crimes against women rose by an average of 44 per cent after women entered local government, while rapes rose by 23 per cent and kidnapping of women showed a 13 per cent increase in the post-reform period up until 2004.<br /><br />However, there has been no significant effect on crimes not specifically targeted against women, such as kidnapping of men, theft or public order offences.<br />The researchers believe there are two reasons behind the surge in reported crimes against women. First, greater numbers of female politicians make the police more responsive to crimes against women.<br /><br />Since the quota legislation, the number of arrests has also increased significantly, particularly for cases dealing with kidnapping of women. Secondly, women victims who encounter more sympathetic women leaders would feel more encouraged to report crimes.<br /><br />Dr Anandi Mani, associate professor of economics at CAGE, said: "The first thing we want to point out is that this is good news. The reason it's happening is because more crimes are being documented than were before the reforms - it's not an increase in incidences of crime".</p>