With the country witnessing a spate of molestation cases in the New Year, India's first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi [Images] on Wednesday said loss of values is the root cause of increasing cases of violence against women.

"We are losing our values. When a man goes and molests a woman, he forgets that he has a sister and mother back home," she said releasing the ASSOCHAM's study 'Women Top in Education Why Miss Top Position'.

Her comments came in the wake of cases of molestation of women in the first week of the New Year in various parts of the country, including Mumbai, Kochi and Gurgaon.

"The problem starts from the family and education system. May be we are not instilling proper values in our children," she said.

Another reason for the rising violence and molestation cases can be attributed to the direct exposure of children to violent movies, video games and internet promoting a culture of 'momentary enjoyment' which unfortunately comes at the cost of others' suffering, said Bedi.

Lauding the progress achieved by women, Bedi said today's women were more assertive in demanding their rights and they were breaking stereotypes despite social insecurity and non-cooperative attitude of families and the society.

"We have to devise our own security system and have to progress by breaking the mould and social barriers," she emphasised.

Talking about the reforms in the police system, Bedi said improvement should come from within. The civil society needs to demand truth from the law enforcement agencies on the actual number of crimes, as instances of non-registration of cases are many, she said.

"The police say that the crime statistics are dropping but we know that it is not true. Hiding the data will not improve the situation, but revealing it will. This way we will be able to know where we lag behind," said Bedi.

Expressing unhappiness over the non-registration of cases by the police, she said many cases were not being registered as the police wanted to show less number of cases.

"Non-registration of cases leads to more offences. Why hide behind the fair statistics. The police department should come out with the true numbers. Only then will we be able to focus on the problems and lack of proper infrastructure," she added.

On a question whether improvement will come with better policy changes, the IPS officer said, "We already have too many good policies but the problem is that they are not being implemented as they should."

"I left my job because I was not happy with the paperwork there. Basically, I am a field person. I did not want to waste my time on paper work. So I am back in the field," Bedi added.

She also proposed a study about the non-registration of cases in the major metro cities and the larger social implications of not registering criminal offences.

Bedi said lack of crime prevention education was one area where the civil society could play a better role.

"People who have influence create a sense of security and remain unaffected by what happens outside their homes while many people have no security cover and their pleas go unheard," she said.