Dr Anandi Mani, researcher at the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick said:

"The recent rape case in New Delhi that has outraged the Indian public has triggered the search for solutions to reduce crimes against women in India.

"Our research suggests that Political Representation (PR) for women would be one step in the right direction.

"We find that PR for women results in greater reporting of such crimes.

"Survey data show that women are not more likely to be victims when they have women leaders, but they show greater inclination to report the crime.

"They are more satisfied in their interactions with the police when their local representative is a woman – and the police are more likely to arrest perpetrators of crimes against women as well.

"The big impact is from having women political representatives at the local level, where potential victims have greater access to them."

Further information about this research can be found here

Dr Mani can be contacted at a dot mani at warwick dot ac dot uk