India is the world's most dangerous country for women, according to a survey of 550 experts on women's issues conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
And whom does India have for company at the top of this list? Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. In 2011, a similar poll ranked India fourth, just below Pakistan.
This year's survey was conducted between March 26 and May 4, and released on Tuesday (June 26).
A Reuters report says that in India, "levels of violence against women still [run] high, more than five years after the rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi sparked national outrage [a reference to the Nirbhaya gangrape case] and government pledges to tackle the issue."
"India ranked as the most dangerous on three issues -- the risks women face from sexual violence and harassment, from cultural and traditional practices, and from human trafficking, including forced labour, sex slavery and domestic servitude."
Pakistan is ranked sixth this year. The US is tenth.
The survey asked which five UN member states "were most dangerous for women and the worst for healthcare, economic resources, traditional practices, sexual and non-sexual abuse, and human trafficking", Reuters said.
Its respondents "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 London-based newswire said India's Ministry of Women and Child Development "declined to comment" on the results.
The themes of sexual harassment and assault have occupied a prominent place in the national conversation in recent months. In Hyderabad, a Tollywood actress stripped outside a film industry body to protest the casting couch. In Delhi, a group of Jawaharlal Nehru University students accused a professor of sexual harassment.
Two chilling gang-rape cases were reported in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. Referring to the first, the New York Times said in an editorial that reading the chargesheet filed by the state police was "to plumb the depths of human depravity".
Government data show reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 per cent between 2007 and 2016, when there were four cases of rape reported every hour.
Source: India Today
BDST: 1559 HRS, JUN 26, 2018
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