Conducted by the Foundation’s TrustLaw legal news service and released on June 15, the perception poll of more than 200 experts on women’s rights and issues on five continents found that, overall, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Somalia posed the greatest danger to women, in that order.
The ensuing international media and internet coverage continues to provoke lively, thoughtful and sometimes rancorous exchanges between those who praise the survey’s conclusions for highlighting the issues in places posing the gravest threats to women and those angered by what they consider faulty results further distorted by a Western bias bordering on racism.
Provoking the greatest surprise and outrage among bloggers and commenters is the inclusion of India, the world’s largest democracy, among the worst of the worst, primarily due to female foeticide, infanticide and trafficking.
A TrustLaw article on the poll noted that India may pay a price for its own transparency since many other countries do not similarly disclose statistics on such problems as foeticide or trafficking.
“Does India really deserve to be on the 4th spot on this list?,” asked Mumbai-based blogger Kiran Manral, who also engaged in a spirited debate with Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa on the BBC World Have Your Say programme.
“Yes, there are foeticides, there are dowry deaths, there are rapes and child brides,” Manral said on her blog.
“Yes, there is sex trafficking and minors forced into prostitution, which happens to be the criterion that played a major role to get us onto this honour list. Yes, the gender ratio is so skewed now that I seriously think the next generation of Indians will have to adopt polyandry as a practical solution to the shortage of brides…But to say that India is the fourth worst country in the world to be a woman? I would say that is stretching the truth a bit too far.”
But like Manral, even if they didn’t agree with the poll many of those who posted comments said that anything that sparks discussion of threats to women is a positive step.
“Frankly, I was somewhat offended to see India’s ranking on this report and, like you, I seriously question the research done,” said a post by “Sukayna” on Manral’s site. “But having said that, this jolt is needed. It is an eye opener and I hope good things come out of this.”
On the Wall Street Journal’s India Realtime blog by Tripti Lahiri, “Mazo” commented, “Yes, India is a very conservative society and India definitely has its issues but the poll is ridiculous.”
“Rocky” went further in his comments, echoing suspicions of a Western bias or “plot” against India that popped up in discussions on this and other sites. “Where are Ukraine, Thailand and Cambodia on the list?” he asked. “This study is obviously driven by a perverse political agenda to defame India.”
“Big Oil” agreed. “Are you seriously telling me that India is worse than Angola, or Saudi Arabia, or Yemen and the numerous other sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern countries? This is (a) deliberate attempt to lump India with Pakistan. The West is especially fond of that.”
On Salon.com, blogger Natasha Lennard said, the TrustLaw survey “at best offers a snapshot of genuinely concerning situations across the world, but lacks any real or valuable analysis; at worst it betrays concerning cultural and racial biases.”
On GirlsReport’s Blog, Keshet Bachan, a gender activist at Plan International who participated in the poll, took Lennard on.
“It doesn’t even matter if the survey is scientifically accurate or not. It’s a wake-up call!,” Bachan argued. “The survey is telling us that not enough is being done, not enough is being said, and not enough people are taking action to prevent abuses against women….And instead of being horrified by the reality of everyday life for girls in Somalia, who have a higher chance of dying in childbirth than they do of completing secondary school, Lennard cries ‘racism.’”
Sarah Jackson, writing on the Womankind blog, focused on the breadth of the problems facing women.
“This poll is a very effective way to draw attention to the terrifying scale and severity of the violation of women’s human rights in these countries (and their often ‘hidden’ nature, in the case of India),” Jackson wrote.
“We have our own problems in the UK of course, and it is easy to forget the bigger picture. But if we do we make a grave mistake, because it’s bigger than many people realize: in no state in the world do women enjoy the same rights, access to resources or opportunities as men. Women on every continent and in every country are affected by violence.”
The experts polled included aid professionals, academics, health works, policymakers, journalists and development specialists. They ranked countries for overall danger and also considered six risk categories: health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to economic resources and trafficking.
The complete package of articles videos, slideshows and infographics surrounding the poll is available on TrustLaw’s special coverage page for the world’s most dangerous countries for women.
For more information, click this link: http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/
Source: www.trust.org
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