Most Unsafe Country for Women 2024

Unsafe Country For Women Or A Raucous Attack On Current Indian Government

A study by the Thomson Reuters Foundation labelling India as the most unsafe country for women has led to a slugfest in the media. People are debating whether India is the most unsafe country for women. Are women in India more oppressed than war-torn Syria, Haiti, and Saudi Arabia? But are these countries even worth comparing to? Ideally, the question should be whether India is as safe as the USA, Japan, Korea, the UK, Australia, and so on because India aspires to be a developed country like these and should not be hyphenated by other countries.

But this is not the first time that such a report has been published, discrediting India’s record and development in all spheres, including prevention of child marriage, women empowerment, legislative framework, prostitution, child labour, slavery and so on. Before attempting to state what the report says, we must understand who and why he says so. Without understanding these two, the Who and Why matrix is not complete.

To understand ‘Who’, let’s analyze who created the report. Thomson Reuters Foundation published the report. So, what does TRF do? If one visits their website, one would realize that it is an organization that takes pride in enabling NGOs and Social enterprise members to achieve groundbreaking legal and policy reforms and strengthen the rule of law. In other words, the organization funds other organizations to create laws and mould policies of the government to create a legal framework that suits their objectives and needs. If one sees their offices worldwide on their website, one would realize that they don’t have any offices in Syria, Afghanistan, most of Africa, Middle-East barring Iraq, but have offices in all growing economies, and they have three offices in India, i.e. in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. No other country has this many offices. Of course, India is a big country, and they need all the efforts to bring policy and legal changes in India.

Couple it with two more realities in India. On one part, it is sad to see that in the past few years, the legislative capabilities of the Indian Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies have been driven by either court pronouncements or by the rowdiness on the streets. The group that cries the loudest gets the law to favour them. Be it reservations, for which there are so many variants, we have forgotten who gets what in which state. Be it changes in Rape and Molestation laws, which unfortunately now look so similar that not paying a prostitute is an equal crime to a gang rape, where a slap to a woman in an impromptu fight to a pat on the back to disrobing the woman on public is equated. When it comes to frequent changes in laws related to women, it is no secret that there are advocacy groups in India that cry hoarse at every remote incident in a country of over 1.3 billion people to make it more and more stringent. The stricter the law is, the more it is prone to misuse, and thus, more money can be made. Recently, a leading newspaper came out with a news story about women who act as honeytraps to extort money out of victims. A new word, ‘Sextortionist’, was also coined for such women somewhere on social media, which has caught the fancy of many. Secondly, the 24/7 news media is less about reporting and more about promoting the agenda of the party it is close to. So, while one section of the press always credits the government for every good in the country, the other section sees the government fail in everything that goes wrong. Such reports fodder both media sides to shout more loudly in their newsrooms.

Now, let’s come to the ‘WHY’ of the matrix. Why did TRF come out with such a report admonishing India and labelling it as the most unsafe country in the world for women? Indian Government, for the last two years, has been cancelling FCRA certificates for many NGOs. (A little background: Any Indian NGO that wants foreign contributions must have an FCRA license, which the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act governs. Many groups have used such funding for fanning religious extremism and conversions and also by advocacy groups for change in legislation). Any activity requires money and resources. These women’s advocacy groups are now facing a crunch. And most care two hoots for women’s rights. Such funds are routinely diverted to give those running these groups luxurious lifestyles.

Moreover, if anyone ever reads this particular report carefully, they would read that it says in fine print it is just the perception of 548 respondents who claim to be “experts in women’s issues” and can not be said to be any survey for that matter and Times of India recently reported that the organization revealed that 43 of these 548 respondents were from India. So, of around 200 countries, they chose 43 respondents from one country alone to create a perception report labelled a survey to demean a country, demolish its tourism industry and pressure the Government to relax FCRA rules again for these women-centric organizations. How many of these 43 respondents would be from rural areas or women who have seen oppression? They must have given a perception from their plush AC offices while getting pedicures done.

Meanwhile, the opposition has gleefully seized this opportunity. Rahul Gandhi tweeted – “While our PM tiptoes around his garden making Yoga videos, India leads Afghanistan, Syria & Saudi Arabia in rape & violence against women. What a shame for our country!” I would love to remind Mr Gandhi that we were just at 4th in 2011 when such a survey came around, and you were tearing up your prime minister’s legislation in public. So, it’s a shame on you that you have never acted on the report for three years since it was published. The Mahila Congress Twitter handle thundered, “International Shame. Welcome to the Era of @narendramodi Governance, under which India has become a ‘No Women’s Land’. Extremely challenged women’s safety. The lack of law and order under @BJP4India govt. has made India a top ranker in the most dangerous countries for women.” Trust me, Congress is not the only one that has seized such opportunities. During his electioneering, Modi was very vocal about the security and safety of women.

Sometime back, when there was furore about Rape, I had written an article Rape Commentology in which I had put Rape Statistics around the world as I was pained by the tag of Rape Capital Tag for Delhi. Also, I have been quite vocal about how the feminists in India seize every opportunity to further their agenda, as they lack real issues. When it comes to other crimes, I re-iterate that rape incidents in India are 0.03 rapes per 1000 population, whereas it’s 1.2 per 1000 in the USA. A woman is 400 times more likely to be groped in New York than in Delhi. Cases of acid attack, witch-hunting or stoning of women are incidental only. There are certain practices like genital mutilation which are absent in India. Child marriage rates are comparable to the USA in India (Surprised, don’t trust me, but would you trust Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage_in_the_United_States )

Thus, this report is nothing but a raucous attack on the Indian government scripted by some disgruntled women whose interests are hampered, and this is done to create a fear psychosis amongst the population to push their agenda and get green bucks for their comfort.

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