India most dangerous country for women, even Syria is better: Survey

The world's fastest-growing economy India is also the most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual abuse and harassment, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation survey.

India was ranked worse than war-torn countries like Afghanistan and Syria when it comes to the safety and security of women. Afghanistan was ranked second and Syria ranked joint third with the United States where women were at high risk of sexual violence, harassment and being coerced into sex.

While India was ranked 4^th in 2011 in the same survey, the country slipped to the top place in 2018 which shows its apathy towards its women.

The country didn’t learn any lessons from the brutal rape and murder case of a student in December 2012, which had then triggered widespread protests and forced the government to amend its rape laws.

The United States is the only western country in the top 10 where respondents felt that women were not safe and were under the high risk of being abused sexually.

India also ranked the most dangerous country for women in terms of human trafficking and customary practices such as forced marriage and female infanticide.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development headed by Maneka Gandhi didn’t come out with any response on the survey.