Of pilferers and poachers: Combating electricity theft in India

Electricity theft is a growing problem worldwide. India, like many other developing countries, is in the grips of electricity theft. To address this challenge, the country introduced various technological solutions, which failed to realize their promised potential. Despite little success, majority of theft-combat interventions continue to emphasize technology and downplay psycho-social factors. The latter calls for deep exploration as power-utility employees have been found to connive with consumers in majority of electricity thefts. Though, employee theft has been explained by distinct perspectives like sociology, psychology, criminology, organizational science etc., none describes the phenomenon completely. In order to gain a holistic understanding, it is imperative to integrate the said perspectives. That's precisely what this paper attempts- It proposes an integrated conceptual framework of the psycho-social factors that predispose employees to collude with consumers in electricity theft.