June 22, 2012: The triple woes of infanticide, child marriage and slavery makes India
the worst place for a woman to be in, according to global poll of experts released
by Trust Law on Wednesday.
Trust Law is a core program of Thomson Reuters Foundation,
a registered charity in the United States and United Kingdom established in 1982.
They declared Canada as the best place for a woman, while even Saudi Arabia, Indonesia,
South Africa, Mexico and Turkey fared better than India.
“In India, women
and girls continue to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burned alive
as a result of dowry-related disputes and young girls exploited and abused as domestic
helps,” one of those polled was quoted as saying.
The Gender Inequality Index
has also reportedly ranked India among the worst places for women. India ranked at
141 among 165 countries analyzed by Newsweek magazine in the treatment of women, which
was published in September.
Despite economic miracle, women in India continued
to face inequalities in opportunities which blocked them from fully participating
in the growth process.
TrustLaw reportedly asked aid professionals, academics,
health workers, policymakers, journalists and development specialists with expertise
in gender issues to rank the 19 countries of the G20 in terms of the overall best
and worst to be a woman.