A report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation has looked at the most dangerous countries for women, and India comes out on top. In second place was Afghanistan, followed by Syria. Somalia and Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five, with the US coming in 10th – the only Western nation to make the list. The list was compiled by asking 548 experts on women’s issues a range of questions from March to May 2018. The experts were spread evenly across the globe from Europe, Africa, the Americas, South East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific. Questions included asking them to rank the top five of 193 member states they thought were the most dangerous for women. These were done in a number of categories, including discrimination and cultural traditions. They were also asked to rank the top five based on the worst for healthcare, sexual violence and harassment, human trafficking, non-sexual violence, and economic resources. The top 10 list is below. 1. India 2. Afghanistan 3. Syria 4. Somalia 5. Saudi Arabia 6. Pakistan 7. Democratic Republic of Congo 8. Yemen 9. Nigeria 10. United States India was found to be the worst nation in terms of sexual violence, human trafficking, forced labor, forced marriage, and sexual slavery. The country also ranked as the most dangerous for cultural and traditional practices, including female genital mutilation. Crime against women in India rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016, with four cases of rape reported every hour. "India has shown utter disregard and disrespect for women... rape, marital rapes, sexual assault and harassment, female infanticide has gone unabated," Manjunath Gangadhara, an official at the Karnataka state government, told Reuters. The survey was a follow-up to a previous one in 2011, when the top five in order were Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia. This latest survey showed a number of changes from that one seven years ago. The US ranked highly following the #MeToo campaign that went viral last year. It ranked joint third with Syria in terms of sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment, and sixth for non-sexual violence. Source
