India Ranks 133rd In The Women, Peace And Security Index 2019

India ranks 133rd in the recently released Women, Peace, and Security Index. The detailed report is scheduled to be released on October 22nd by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, in collaboration with the National Geographic.

Key Takeaways:

• The new global Women, Peace, and Security Index incorporates three basic dimensions of well- being—inclusion (economic, social, political); justice (formal laws and informal discrimination); and security (at the family, community, and societal levels)—and captures and quantifies them through 11 indicators.
• The report is released by Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security in partnership with National Geographic. 
• India ranks at a low 133rd spot in the index and hasn't performed 'best' in any of the three categories of Inclusion, Security, and Justice.
• In the Women, Peace, and Security Index 2017-18, India ranked 131 out of 153 countries that covered around 98 percent of the world's population. 

As per a study conducted in 2018, gender bias kills 2,39,000 girls every year in India. Moreover, the figure doesn't include girls who are aborted simply for their gender.

Piteous Indeed, India Ranks Lower Than Saudi Arabia And Iran

Countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, rank better than India in the index. It was only on June 24 this year, when women in Saudi were granted the right to drive. Imagine a country with such strict laws for women ranking better than India? This is definitely alarming for a developing country like ours if it wants to continue its pace towards development. Today, near to 50 percent population of India are women, and hence, no sort of development is possible without their inclusion and betterment.

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Iran ranks at 118th position in the index and one best factor in Iran is the financial inclusion of women. More than 90 percent of women in Iran have a banking or other type of account. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia ranks at the 120th spot in the index and is better than India in women's employment and their safety. As far as education is concerned, the top spot is captured by Estonia, where women receive an average of 14 years of education, which is double the global average.  Interestingly, Moldova, a country in Europe, has imposed a ban on the sexist ads in media and ranks 64th in the index.

As The Middle Class Grow In India, The Son Bias Worsens

According to Jeni Klugman, managing director of the Georgetown Institute and lead author of the index, “Son bias is basically sex-linked abortion. But you need assisted technology to know the sex.” Ironically, in countries like China and India, “as the middle class grew, it actually got worse rather than better—people could actually do the ultrasound, find out what the sex was, and have the abortion” if the baby was a girl. As per a study conducted in 2018, gender bias kills 2,39,000 girls every year in India. Moreover, the figure doesn't include girls who are aborted simply for their gender.

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