Is India dangerous for women?

In a study by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, India has been named the world’s most dangerous country for women. Being ranked the worst in the world — even below Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Somalia — is a significant drop for India, which was ranked the fourth most dangerous country for women in the same survey seven years ago.

Between March 26 and May 04, the Thomson Reuters Foundation surveyed 548 experts on women’s issues across the globe, including academics, health workers, policy-makers, and NGO workers.

The respondents were asked to consider the following parameters: health care, cultural traditions, discrimination, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, and human trafficking. And India came up as the worst of the lot in half of them.

Harathi, a student from Government Degree College for Women, Begumpet, Hyderabad says, “Nohing is there to be surprised. Yes! we are not safe in our country. There are so many crimes on women.  And there are so many NGOs working on this to save women from rape, crime etc. And I think media should also help by showing the pictures of the criminals not the victims.”

The 2012 gang-rape of a young woman in New Delhi was seen as an inflection point for women’s safety in India, sparking widespread protests and calls for change. However, girls and women continue to face extreme brutality in the conservative, patriarchal country.   This, despite improved laws and many woman-oriented schemes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save girls, educate girls) launched by the Narendra Modi government.

Hyderabad-based feminist Tejaswini Madabhushi says, “It’s sad but not surprising. Today, I was reading about how actor Dileep was accused of playing a role in the conspiracy to abduct the young actress, I think there is a problem in attitude. When violence against women happens immediately men are treated as victims.”

Kondaveeti Satyavati, Editor, Bhumika magazine says, “This is very unfortunate! Consequences are serious. The law is severe.  But, we don’t have awareness on laws. Lacking fear of punishment and political interference are the causes. Domestic violence has increased a lot. Women are able to come out and complain on their issues, but media is provoking males to take extreme steps.”

“We should concentrate on root cause. Our education system is only able to provide jobs but is not able to inculcate character. We are lacking gender sensitivity. In the present scenario we are lacking in human rights, children rights, women rights, democratic values and democratic thinking. Men are not able to digest questioning by women in the present generation which was absent in the past generations,” she adds. 

She disagrees that India is the most dangerous, “Government or civil societies should sensitise people on the laws. Mindset should be changed. India is a better place when compared with several parts of the world. Constitution has given reasonably good laws for women security.”

Th experts said India moving to the top of poll showed not enough was being done to tackle the danger women faced, more than five years after the rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi made violence against women a national priority.

Government data shows reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016, when there were four cases of rape reported every hour. India's Ministry of Women and Child Development declined to comment on the survey results.