MoRTH and NCRB publish differing 2024 road death figures
India's official count of road accident deaths in 2024 is all over the place.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) says it's 1.77 lakh, while the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has two different figures, 1.75 lakh and 1.81 lakh, depending on which report you check.
Even though there's a new electronic reporting system meant to make things clearer, these numbers still don't add up.
Different formats, delays, under-reporting
Both MoRTH and NCRB pull their data from police reports, but they use different formats and methods: one follows a U.N. project template, while the other goes through crime bureaus.
Add in delays from some states, possible under-reporting of deaths that happen after a month, and slow adoption of digital tools like eDAR, and it's no wonder things are messy.
India needs to fix these gaps fast since it already leads the world in road accident deaths, even ahead of China and the US.