Lucky I don't live in India.
India a dangerous place to live in - The Economic Times
MUMBAI: For all those who believe that India is becoming an increasingly dangerous place to live in, here are the numbers that back that belief.
India's rank has fallen seven points on the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2011, which ranks countries according to how peaceful they are. India now ranks 135 out of 153 countries. We are now amongst the 20 least peaceful nations in the world, along with countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At rank 80, China fares a lot better than India. While sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most violent regions in the world according to the GPI, most countries in Africa and nearly all countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe rank above India.
"India's score remains the same on most parameters used to measure peacefulness. Homicide and crime rates in India, too, are a lot lower than many other countries. The fall in rankings is largely due to an increasing perception of criminality in society," says Steve Killelea, founder of the Global Peace Index.
The GPI, now in its fifth edition, has been developed by Killelea's Institute for Economics and Peace along with the Economist Intelligence Unit , the research wing of The Economist magazine.
Killelea feels the increased perception of violence in India may have a lot to do with the repeated terror attacks on the country in recent times. That India is in a volatile neighbourhood and has issues with countries such as Pakistan and China only adds to the threat perception," says Killelea.
Pakistan fares worse than India with a rank of 146 on the GPI, thanks largely to the easy access to small weapons in the country coupled with high levels of internal conflict and terrorism. Despite China's poor human rights track record, Killelea says that China's relatively better performance has much to do with low levels of homicide and violent crime in the country, as well as a much lower potential for terrorist attacks.
The GPI shows that for the third consecutive year, levels of peacefulness have dropped across the globe. The uprising in the Arab world and parts of Africa had much to do with an increase in global violence this time around. The country that showed the biggest tumble at the GPI is Libya, whose rank fell by 87 places. Countries like Egypt and Bahrain also showed a large drop on the GPI.
"The dramatic changes in the Global Peace Index this year are not caused by war between countries but by conflict between citizens and their own governments. Our analysis of the factors for resilient and peaceful societies show that it is not desirable or sustainable to enforce peace through curfews or strongarm military tactics." said Killelea.
According to estimates by economists working on the GPI, violence cost the global economy over $ 8 trillion in 2010. "If the world had been 25% more peaceful over the past year the global economy would have reaped an additional economic benefit of just over US$2 trillion.