Dangerous Place For Women?
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Dangerous place for women?

Co Founder & CEO
See interview of Shivraj  Asthana
Yesterday TrustLaw, a Foundation set up by Thompson Reuters, released a report on the 5 most dangerous places for women in the world!

This is what the report found in the order of ranking

  1. Afghanistan
  2. Democratic Republic of Congo
  3. Pakistan
  4. India
  5. Somalia

The report created a buzz all over the world. A surprise inclusion was that of India at such a rank! Digging a little deeper India was included due to the preception in human trafficking and the phenomena of "missing children" - both serious and reprehensible issues to deal with.

Last year the State Department placed India, for the seventh consecutive year, on the Tier 2 Watch list mostly due to the absolute numbers involved in trafficking .

Clearly a lot needs to happen to curb the big menace to women.  However does this rank for India really reflect the correct picture?  Consider this:

  • Trustlaw ran the poll among 213 (yes only 213) gender experts from all over the world, before publishing this alarming report!  Can we really draw any meaningful conclusion with such a small number of responses other than being aware of their preceptions only? Trustlaw has not revealed who these gender experts were! 
  • India, most likely, got included due to much higher level of transparancy in reporting/publishing of actual stats... One former Home Secrertary has been quoted to have estimated that 100 M women were victims of trafficking! 
  • A reading of reports on human trafficking in India reveals that a significant part of the problem is due to a high incidence of child labor and bonded labor that affects both the genders (probably boys more than girls). Girls suffer more due to sexual exploitation.

While the issues covered in the report are serious enough, and need to be dealt with at utmost dispatch, the manner of compiling and reporting needs to be more credible. For example there is no explanation of how the figure of 100M (one out of every 5 female) as victims in India has been arrived at.  

These polls serve a useful purpose of acting as a handy dip stick. Trustlaw would have inspired more confidence if it had developed appropriate metrics (like Transparency International), and conducted the survey in a more comprehensive and transparent manner. 

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