Modi government rejects report calling India most unsafe for women

The Modi government has rejected an “opinion poll” by Thomson Reuters Foundation that said India is the most dangerous country for women.  The Modi government has said that the conclusion is not based on any data but solely on subjective opinion.

With the report — which names India as more unsafe than war torn Syria and Iraq where violence against women is endemic, or deeply conservative Saudi Arabiawith its discriminatory laws — sparking a major furore, the government said the poll uses a “flawed methodology” to present an erroneous picture.

The women and child development ministry, in a detailed statement, questioned the reliability of the poll since the foundation has not revealed any information on the 548 respondents consulted, who are said to be “experts on women’s issues”.
Despite data to the contrary, the usage of an opinion poll  is clearly an effort to malign the nation,” the ministry said in a statement. The government has said that the report has, in fact, ignored relevant data. The government said there is visible progress on women’s rights. There has been a reduction in child marriage over the years, with reports of marriage in the age group of 0-9 years now being nil.

“Further, the percentage of women in the age group of 15-19 years who were already mothers or pregnant has dropped from 16% in 2005-06 to 7.9% in 2015-16,” it said. The ministry referred to National Crime Records Bureau data to point that “38,947 cases of rape have been registered in 2016. In the year 2014 and 2015, 36,735 and 34,651 cases were reported. The increase in reporting is a result of the favourable environment for women to access police authorities”.