According to the ‘Freedom in the World 2021: Democracy under Siege’ released by US based Think Tank Freedom House, India has scored 67 and its position has been downgraded to ‘Partly Free’ from ‘Free’ in 2020. India’s ranking has also fallen to 88 (from 83) out of 211 countries.
- The ‘most free countries’ with a score of 100 are Finland, Norway & Sweden.
- Least Free Countries with a score of 1 are Tibet & Syria.
- This is the 1st time since 1997 that India has been downgraded to ‘partly free’. India’s score has decreased from 71 (in 2020 ).
- Freedom House is largely funded through USA government grants and is actively tracking the course of democracy since 1941.
| Country | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|
| India | 67 | ‘Partly Free’ |
| Finland, Sweden, Norway | 100 | ‘Most Free’ |
| Tibet, Syria | 1 | ‘Least Free’ |
Reasons for India’s Downfall
- Legislation & Policies that undermine the political rights of Muslims.
- Increased Government Pressure on Human rights organization.
- Rising Intimidation of academics & Journalists.
Basis of Rankings
- The scores are based on Political rights indicators like electoral process, political pluralism & government functioning.
- Civil Liberties indicators such as Freedom of expression and belief, associational & organisational rights, rule of law & personal autonomy and individual rights.
- Based on the scores, countries are declared as ‘free’, ‘partly free’ or ‘not free’.
India’s scores
- Political rights – 34/40
- Civil Liberties – 33/60
- Internet Freedom score – 51/100.
India’s Status:
Freedom House noted that the change in India’s status from “Free” to “Partly Free” was the most significant for 2020, “meaning less than 20 per cent of the world’s people now live in a Free country — the smallest proportion since 1995″.
The Freedom House report again listed “Indian Kashmir” separately, and retained its status as last year of “not free” (the first time it had done so), with the score for it falling from 28 to 27. Between 2013 and 2019, “Indian Kashmir” was labelled as “partly free”. Its score fell from 28 to 27.
Other Countries on par with India
India’s score of 67 puts in on par with other countries like Ecuador & Dominican Republic.
Click here to read the full report
Recent Related News:
i.February 4, 2021, According to the ‘Democracy Index 2020’ released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), India with a score of 6.61 slipped two places to 53rd Rank (out of 167 countries) in the Index due to decline in Civil Liberties.
About Freedom House:
President – Michael J. Abramowitz
Headquarters – Washington D.C., USA
