COVID-19 WILL LEAD TO INCREASED CRIME RATES IN INDIA

The first ever Coronavirus outbreak was identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019 and was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. The cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) are increasing exponentially around the globe. Various measures like Social Distancing, Complete lockdown and Curfew are seen in the likes of India, China, Italy among others. India, as a nation, got an opportunity to learn from their experiences and initiated a complete lockdown in the whole country until the end of April. The economies around the world got hit by such lockdowns due to which, as many economists predict, a recession seems inevitable. The unemployment rate will likely increase and people will be left with less disposable incomes, paving the way for an economic crisis. With the experience of major crisis in the past, we have noticed that the crime rates in and post such situations tend to increase. The situation with the law enforcement organization needs to be handled with care and caution if India and other countries hope to bounce back strongly. This paper has studied the past economic recessions and changes in crime rate during and post economic recovery. It also aims to enlist a variety of measures that the government of India is taking to fight the crisis arising due to COVID-19 along with some suggestions to control the situation afterwards.