Crime Against Women in India and Declining Labour Force Participation Rate of Females: A Hidden Correlation?

The research note focuses on two key issues: crime against women and gender empowerment. It tries to find out, by correlation analysis, any existing relationship between the rising crime rate against women in India and various parameters for measuring the extent of gender parity. Statistics of National Crime Records Bureau and Gender Gap Reports constitute the dataset for the research note. This simple analysis is undertaken for a time period of eight years (2006–2013) and reveals that there is a negative, high, and significant correlation between the extent of violence that women face and female-to-male labour force participation rate. The note concludes that increasing political representation and educational opportunities for females will be ineffective in reducing gender-based violence, unless adequate measures are taken for reducing the gender gap in labour force participation and earned income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]