The Big Story: No country for women On Tuesday, the Thomson Reuters Foundation released a survey of global experts that concluded that India is the world’s most dangerous country for women. “The world’s second-most populous nation, with 1.3 billion people, ranked as the most dangerous on three of the topic questions – the risk of sexual violence and harassment against women, the danger women face from cultural, tribal and traditional practices, and the country where women are most in danger of human trafficking including forced labour, sex slavery and domestic servitude,” argued the report. India had fared badly in an earlier iteration of this exercise as well. In 2011, it had ranked as fourth worst for women. That India can be a violent country for its women is a point that can hardly be contested. Rather than focus on what this survey said about India, most conversation focussed on the somewhat tangential point of the survey’s methodology. On social media, pro-government commentators attacked the report. In a press release published on Wednesday, the Union government’s Ministry of Women and Child Development followed this up with its own criticism, arguing that the report has “used a flawed methodology to arrive at this claim”. The ministry goes on to argue, “India is far ahead of many countries in most of these areas [healthcare, discrimination, cultural traditions, sexual violence, non-sexual violence and human trafficking] and has also seen significant improvement in indicators when compared with its own performance in previous years.” It is troubling that, in their eagerness to debunk the report, some are making the argument that India’s is actually some sort of leader when it comes to parameters such as women’s health and safety. In the case of Maternal Mortality Rate (the annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births), for example, while India has made improvements, it is still one of the worst countries for a woman to give birth in. India’s has an abysmal female labour force participation rate – calculated as the share of women that are employed or are seeking work as a proportion of the working-age female population. The figure for Bangladesh is three times higher. Even more troublingly, the number is falling for India. Safety is a prime concern in India, with most women having severely restricted freedom of movement as a result. In India, victims of sexual violence “face significant barriers to obtaining justice and critical support services”, as per a Human Rights Watch report released in 2017. Five years after the gang rape and murder of a student in Delhi sent shock waves through the country, little seems to have changed. Moreover, the ministry’s contention that female genital mutilation does not take place in India is simply incorrect. Ironically, even as the Union government and its supporters attack the report and its methodology, some of these same people had used the 2011 report to attack the United Progressive Alliance government in power at the time. In 2013, Narendra Modi has himself tweeted, “India is considered 4th most dangerous for women. When will she feel safe and symbol of positivity?” A matter as critical for India as women’s health and safety needs to be a topic for serious introspection – not be treated as a political football. Punditry Updating of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Citizenship Amendment Bill could lead to a redrawing of the demographic map of South Asia, give new life to the discredited two-nation theory, writes Sanjib Baruah in the Indian Express. The high-handed way in which the Union government has gone about amalgamating regional rural banks ignores all corporate governance norms, argues MS Sriram in the Mint. The Kerala High Court’s judgment on obscenity in the wake of the appearance of the image of a breastfeeding woman on the cover of Grihalakshmi, a leading women’s magazine in Malayalam, will have monumental implications, contends J Devika in the Hindu. The ruling rejects the idea that the exposed female body is instantly obscene. Giggle Don’t Miss In Kashmir, another “human shield” incident scars a minor and four men, reports Rayan Naqash:<doc-sep>In April, Modi’s top lieutenant, Amit Shah, defended his boss’s record on women at a rally, saying that in India “women have a status of a deity” and that the government had instituted many programs to help them — such as Modi’s ambitious plan to put a toilet in every Indian home — as well as the country’s move to toughen punishments for child rapists after the brutal murder and gang rape of an 8-year-old girl earlier this year that shocked the country.<doc-sep>In Saudi Arabia, women cannot try clothes while shopping. The mere thought of a disrobed woman behind a dressing room is apparently too much for men to handle. No, they don't get to choose. Women in Saudi are still heavily dependent on men for even the most basic choices. In Iran, certain universities ban female students from studying specific subjects, usually those concerning engineering and technology. In Israel, a woman needs her husband's permission to get a divorce. In Mississippi in the US, a rapist can claim parental right over a child. And the list goes on. Living in India today, many women can afford to laugh at these facts for they have not known the existence of such rules during their lifetimes. But a report by Thomson Reuters would have us believe that India is the world's most dangerous country for women. Yes, women in India are unsafe - so unsafe that stepping out of the house after sundown in most parts of the country is considered suicidal. But is this experience unique to India? No. There are some countries on planet earth where women are not permitted to move freely even during the day. And that restriction, mind you, has been enforced by the law of the land. This piece is not an attempt to establish "my subjugation is better than yours". The piece is only trying to argue that Thomson Reuters ranking India as the world's most unsafe country in the world is unfair to both India and women in countries where they are fighting for the bare minimum right to survive. The country has topped the list of the most dangerous nations globally for women, thanks to widespread sexual violence, retrograde cultural practices and human trafficking, according to a poll conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In all, 759 experts in women's issues studied the survey, of which came 548 responses. The survey looked at 193 United Nations member nations. The poll was a repeat of a survey conducted in 2011 that found Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Somalia as the most dangerous countries for women. India has been ranked the world's most unsafe country for women. But given the daily fight its women put up, this is an oversimplification. Sexual violence Indian government data, which has formed the basis for most respondents to rank India highest on the index, shows reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 per cent between 2007 and 2016, with four cases of rape being reported every hour. The way these figures have been reported here has made it look like there has been a sudden spurt in cases of sexual assaults. But what has actually happened is that more cases are being reported now. With provisions of zero FIR, which allows a FIR to be filed in any police station, irrespective of the place of an incident/jurisdiction, and growing outrage against victims being turned away from police stations, more rape survivors have come forth to report sexual assault. In India itself, more cases are reported from Delhi because, in the presence of a constant media glare, it is very difficult for police officers to turn away victims without lodging their complaints. Which does not mean that Delhi is actually the most unsafe city and a nearby town such as, say, Meerut, is a women's paradise. India has come to the point where women are reclaiming the right to venture out at nights. Recall the outrage and the outdoors protests that took place after the harassment case of Varnika Kundu shook Chandigarh. In many other countries, a mere mention of such a right, to be out, safe, at night, even alone, could risk incarceration or worse for women. In Saudi Arabia, there is no penal code and no written law which specifically criminalises rape or prescribes its punishment. So, if you can design the mechanism in a way that no one can come out and register a case, you can live happily in the comfort of the fallacy that it never happened. The Nirbhaya Effect: Women in India are increasingly calling out misogyny and sexual violence and asserting themselves. Human Rights Watch, which has investigated the situation, has concluded in its reports that the rape victim is often punished for speaking out against the crime. The point to be reiterated: India is no paradise for women — but calling it the worst in the world amounts to deliberate spreading of misinformation. Retrograde cultural practices The most potent tool used to ensure the subjugation of women has been the culture card. Women in India have long been confined to the four walls of a house, then abused mentally and physically even behind those walls. But have women elsewhere been having a party? While female genital mutilation (FGM) in India is largely restricted to the Muslim Bohra community, it is pretty blatant and rampant across many African countries. Periods are now being openly discussed in India, with the topic, once taboo, even turning into the theme for a blockbuster movie in this country. A Mumbai-based media company, Culture Machine, has spoken about granting women period/menstruation leave, yet again, by making the first day of period leave a reality. The ease with which such issues can now be discussed in this country did not seem possible a few decades ago. But women in India fought and won in many spheres. Female genital mutilation is rampant in many African countries where it is not vociferously debated. Picture courtesy: Instagram/kimydee03 Women in India have battled for their right to enter the Haji Ali sanctum and Sabarimala at a time their counterparts are fighting over the right to be allowed to abort foetuses, even in cases where it poses a risk to their lives. Human Trafficking Trafficking women and children for sexual exploitation is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. Women and girls account for seven in 10 victims of an industry estimated to affect 40 million people worldwide and generate illegal annual profits of $150 billion for traffickers, says the United Nations and the rights group Walk Free Foundation. Women and girls in India, the Thomson Reuters study tells us, face the biggest threat from traffickers because they are still widely considered to be sexual objects and second-class citizens. Which country in the world has accorded women the status of first-class citizens is a troubling question that hasn't been answered here though. Experts Thomson Reuters reached out to say that while the problem is rampant across the globe, those from southeast Asia, and especially from India, are the most vulnerable because girls are seen as a 'burden' on families, 'inferior' to boys. That is enough to explain why Thomson Reuters has jumped the gun in declaring India the worst country in the world for women. Yes, women in India are vulnerable. Their fight for a life of dignity is a daily battle - but progress is being made. However, there are parts of this world where women don't even know what that means. Thomson Reuters needs a deeper, more detailed and far more sensitive study to figure that out. Meanwhile, women across the world must continue to ensure a better world for themselves — one step at a time. Just as millions of Indian women are. Also read: Why lampooning Indira Gandhi and Emergency is not enough to uphold democracy<doc-sep>
The WCD said the Reuters used a flawed methodology to arrive at the conclusion. (File) The Women and Child Development Ministry today dismissed as "clearly inaccurate" a survey that ranked India the world's most dangerous country for women, saying the report is based on perception of "unknown persons". A senior WCD official said the ministry has asked the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which conducted the survey, for details on the experts to ascertain the report's authenticity, but no reply has been received as yet. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, after a survey of about 550 experts on women's issues, has ranked India the world's most dangerous country for women, followed by war-torn Afghanistan and Syria, due to the high risk of sexual violence. The WCD said the Reuters used a flawed methodology to arrive at the conclusion. "The ranking is based on a perception poll based on responses to simply six questions. The results are not derived from any kind of data and are solely based on inherently subjective opinions," the ministry said in a statement. "Further, the poll has been conducted with 548 respondents, which have been defined by Reuters as 'experts focused on women's issues'. However, information on their designation, credentials, country of expertise or qualifications is not available thus reliability is an issue," it said. The methodology given by the organisation also includes 'policy-makers' as one of the respondents. However, no information or opinion has been sought from this ministry regarding this poll, it added. "India is far ahead of many countries in most of these areas and has also seen significant improvement in indicators when compared with its own performance in previous years. Therefore, the ranking of India is a surprise and clearly inaccurate," it said. An Indian woman is in a much better position than a number of women in other countries around the world. Facts clearly show that the opinion of India as the most dangerous country for women is not a reflection of the reality, the statement said. The poll was conducted online, by phone and in person between March 26 and May 4 with an even spread across Europe, Africa, the Americas, South East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific. The poll was a repeat of a survey in 2011 in which Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia were named as the most dangerous countries for women. The survey asked respondents which five of the 193 UN member states they thought were most dangerous for women and which country was worst in terms of healthcare, economic resources, cultural or traditional practices, sexual violence and harassment, non-sexual violence and human trafficking. Respondents also ranked India the most dangerous country for women in terms of human trafficking, including sex slavery and domestic servitude, and for customary practices such as forced marriage, stoning and female infanticide, the foundation said in a statement. The six questions posed as part of the poll cannot fairly be applied to all countries. "For example the age bar for defining child marriage is different in every country, mutilation as a means of punishment, female genital mutilation, stoning etc. are not practiced in India," it said. The ministry said that despite data to the contrary, the usage of an opinion poll to peg India as the most dangerous country for women is "clearly an effort to malign the nation and draw attention away from real improvements seen in recent years". "Ever since the unfortunate incident of 2012, the entire country has been alert about the safety of women and ensuring their equality at home, in the economy and in society at large. The government has been taking a lead in this direction," the statement said, indicating the Nirbhaya gangrape case of December 16, nearly six years ago. The National Commission for Women also rejected the survey, and said the countries that have been ranked after India have women who are not even allowed to speak in public. The survey findings were used by the Congress to hit out at the government.