Crime against Women and Human Development: Do they have comovements in Indian States?

Abstract

Crime against women is a vibrant issue in the literature of development economics whose control becomes the one of the principal agendas of the policy makers as it creates social disturbances and delays in reaching sustainable developmental objectives. Although there are some studies on the impacts of that type of crime upon economy at country levels, there is no such studies at Indian state levels particularly when the issue of human development is considered. The present study aims to intercept in this juncture through investigating whether crime against women and HDI maintain comovements over the period 1995-2018 along with their short run causal interplays for the major states and union territories of India. It arrives at the conclusion that there is long run relation between HDI and crime rates only for four states, namely, Bihar, MP, Punjab and TN. However, the results of the causal interplays in the short run show that there is unilateral causality between the two for seven states, namely, AP, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and UP, Assam and Odisha. The relatively rich, educated and healthy people are probably associated with the increasing crime rates against women in these two states.