Is India really the most dangerous country for women?

Pedro_P

A survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation has ranked India as the world's most dangerous country for women, ahead of Afghanistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. But is this really true?

▼ The poll surveyed 548 experts on six  different indices - healthcare,  discrimination, cultural traditions, sexual  and non-sexual violence, and human  trafficking. They were first asked to name the five most dangerous countries from the list of 193 United Nations member states. And then they were asked to name the worst country in each of the above categories. India topped three - cultural traditions, sexual violence and human trafficking.
A similar poll seven years ago had ranked India fourth, with Afghanistan top of the list.
The new survey has been criticised in India, with many questioning how countries like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, which grant far fewer rights to women, managed to perform better.
The Thompson Reuters Foundation poll is based on the perception of over 500 "experts" & not on the perception of common women in India. How can Syria, where ISIS jihadis held women captive as sex slaves, be more safe for women? Why is Indian media buying statistical gibberish? https://t.co/xUZ99LgtNb — Aarti Tikoo Singh (@AartiTikoo) June 26, 2018
Report
The country's National Commission for Women rejected it outright, saying that countries where women could not speak out had done better. They also pointed out that rape, harassment and other forms of violence against women appear to have risen in India because more cases are being reported, driven by public outrage.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development said in a statement that using "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".
How did the report reach this conclusion?
It relies completely on the opinion and verdict of the 548 experts. They include academics, policymakers, journalists and those working in healthcare or other development sectors.
The foundation's head, Monique Villa, told BBC World Service that 41 of the experts were Indian. However there is no clarity about the nationality of the other experts and how widely other countries were represented. Furthermore, the report states that of 759 experts contacted, only 548 replied - no other information about them is available.
Sanjay Kumar, director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), one of India's top independent research organisations, said this "lack of transparency" was extremely worrying. "How were these people chosen? What is the gender divide? Where are they from? This is very important to know, but there is no information available on it," he said.
But Roop Rekha Verma, a college professor and social activist, welcomed the report.
"I am not unhappy about this report and its findings - it is enough to make us sit up," she said. "A better methodology, rooted in intensive data and empirical work, could have been used of course, but if more than 500 gender specialists view it like this, it has to be taken seriously. These aren't perceptions from people on the street - these are well-informed experts."
Was the right methodology used?
No, according to Mr Kumar. He points out that government or other public data is available for many of the parameters used to rank nations, and to ignore that in favour of perception is an "extreme shortcut".
"Data, even if unreliable, should form the basis of any ranking. Perception should form the basis for a ranking only when there is no available data," he said.
Mr Kumar added that the survey admitting to use "mixed methodology" - that is a mix of face-to-face, online and phone interviews - was also very problematic.
"I can tell you from experience that different interview techniques always give you different outcomes. There has to be one base. It seems that in this case the interviews have been carried out on the basis of convenience - one can only assume this as no further explanation is given.
"This is no way to conduct a survey - especially one that you are publicising so much. It's a shortcut and should not be taken seriously."
'India has lost the battle of perception'
Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi
Is India really more dangerous than Afghanistan, Syria or Saudi Arabia?
The government has been quick to question the Reuters survey, but India has no reason to gloat - a look at the official crime statistics for 2016 shows a woman was raped every 13 minutes; six women were gang-raped every day; a bride was murdered for dowry every 69 minutes; and 19 women were attacked with acid every month.
Add to that thousands of reported cases of sexual harassment, stalking, voyeurism and domestic violence.
But despite its considerable flaws, India is a democracy where the rule of law (largely) prevails. As someone who's always lived and worked in India, I know that women enjoy tremendous freedom and rights here and that there really is no comparison with war-torn Afghanistan and Syria, or Saudi Arabia where until a few days ago women could be jailed simply for driving. It's a bit like comparing apples and oranges.
So does this ranking matter? Actually, it does - because it shows India has lost the battle of perceptions. And sometimes, perceptions do matter. So instead of rejecting the survey, India should do some soul-searching to see how it can improve things for its women, convince the world that it's not hostile territory for the female gender and get off lists like these.
Who else is on the list?
Afghanistan and Syria, which have been ravaged by war, come second and third, Somalia is fourth, while Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have been ranked fifth and sixth.
The United States, surprisingly, has been ranked 10th - and it's ranked third for sexual violence. (▪ ▪ ▪)

► Please, read the full note here: Source]

metac

The war within is coming into grim clarity, never mind the battle of perceptions without. There's something broken in society, in the way we bring up boys and generously render bias to them. And this is not a problem peculiar to India. The world suffers from it, and for it.

Only next is the battle of perceptions coming into stark relief.

To wit, here's a spirited rebuttal I came across today's papers. It's meagre consolation, hardly restorative, but still, it interrogates the sinister intent behind Thomson Reuters's report.
https://blogs.timesofindia.india ... an-other-countries/

Sharada

I as a woman feel that India is the safest country to stay. If given a option of staying somewhere else also I would still choose to stay in India

thingy

South Africa is the rape capital of the world. That might sound a little sensationalist, but it’s true. South Africa has a reported rape rate of 132.4 per 100,00. That is an insane figure. But again, it is not all that surprising when you consider the history ion the country. So many of the people are only a generation removed from being ill educated, tribal, second class citizen. 90% of the population  did not have equal rights with the ruling elite, and thus they are still somewhat behind certain parts of the rest of the world. Add in the AIDS endemic, approximately 11% of the population has the disease, and the belief that sex with  virgin will cure it, and we again have compounding factors driving people to commit the most heinous of crimes. Like Botswana, baby rape is a massive problem.

bigsam2

There are two parts I wish to talk about:
1) The Survey & 2) The condition of women in India
Firstly the survey involves around 550 respondents and their perception about women's safety. Seems to me like a pretty contentious method for a country as large and as diverse as India.
Secondly the actual conditions as regards the safety of women in India is appalling, no doubt about it in my mind. And as long as attitudes towards the girl child doesn't change this wont change either.
But in conclusion to place places like Syria and Yemen (both war zones & women have been used as sex slaves here) as safer for women compared to India just does not lend credibility to the survey

Akm1001

Whatever be the situation here but its quite harsh to say that among all countries India is most unsafe. So definitely doubt is bound to arise on the credibility of the survey.

viksorion

550 sample size really........
Is it really even statistically significant.

Secondly who are these so called experts and what is their credibility to comment of such sensitive issues.

Thirdly what are the parameters they have judged to come to this conclusion

Really have they seen the conditions of the women in the war torn countries and in the Islamic countries with closed societies

Totally rubbish

Danielle

viksorion 30-6-2018 03:00 PM
550 sample size really........
Is it really even statistically significant.

Touche

jitukawade

I do not agree. Survey is motivated

Sin

A country with this big a population and only 500 odd people participate? That's strange and not a reliable survey in my humble opinion.