The findings of a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation which declared India as the world’s most unsafe country for women, has been deservedly rejected by the Indian Government. The Foundation has itself admitted that the findings are based on ‘perception’ and not data. Even the perception is premised on the feedback of some 500 ‘experts’ — a sample size that is ridiculous. The image of a nation of 1.3 billion people cannot be determined by a handful of people. Besides, the Foundation has not been transparent in its methods; it has refused to identify the names of these ‘experts’ on grounds of confidentiality.
It is quite possible that most of these ‘experts’ are like-minded in their socio-political leaning which could have influenced their perception. Another lacuna in the survey is that it has, by its own admission, applied the exact same parameters for all countries, when conventional wisdom demanded that different parameters ought to have been considered for countries with different socio-economic demographics. It beats reason that countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia where women have yet to reach a social status that is acceptable in democracies and in societies that believe in equality, should be better placed in the survey. The findings claim that women in India fare worst in trafficking, sexual violence and harassment. It is obvious that the respondents did not take into consideration, at least not adequately enough, the rise in women awareness in the country, of their increased inclination to report cases of sexual harassment and violence, and of the general spike in social bonding against such crimes. That said, policy-makers and other stakeholders must accept that the situation is far from ideal in the country. Women do face many hurdles in securing justice for themselves. Courts have been less than prompt in closing cases of sexual violence against women — the Nirbhaya case is a good example.
While the lower court and the High Court have already handed out the death penalty to the accused, the Supreme Court has yet to dispose off the accused’s plea. Besides, our law and order mechanism is still not sensitive enough to handle issues of sexual violence against women, and there have been instances of the police being less than willing to pursue such matters, often seeking to sabotage the case at the initial stage of probe. In all of this, the disgusting part has been the Congress’s attempt to use the survey findings to play politics. Does it not realise that in doing so it is also harming the nation’s image?
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