India placed at 111 out of 162 Countries in Human Freedom Index 2020

India reported a ranking of 6.43, which is lower than the average of 6.93 for the 162 nations ranked by the index for human freedom. India’s personal freedom was presented a score of 6.30 by the report, while economic freedom was rated 6.56.

India is ranking above neighbours, Pakistan placed at the rank of 140, Bangladesh at 139, and China at 129^th position but India is below Bhutan being ranked at 10^th position, Sri Lanka at 94^th and Nepal at 92^nd position.

The countries that ranked in the list of top 10 are:

1. New Zealand
2. Switzerland
3. Hong Kong
4. Denmark
5. Australia
6. Canada
7. Ireland
8. Estonia
9. Germany, and
10. Sweden

While the 11^th position was taken by Japan, and the 17^th position was taken by the UK along with the US. On the other side, Syria followed by Sudan, Venezuela, Iran and Yemen were ranked the worst.

The calculation of the index is done using “76 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom” in areas like Religion, Association, Assembly & Civil Society, Rule of Law, Movement, Expression & Information, Security & Safety, Size of Government, Regulation of Credit, Labour, & Business, Identity & Relationships, Legal System & Property Rights, Freedom to Trade Internationally, and Access to Sound Money.

For the year 2018, the HFI (Human Freedom Index) includes 162 nations, the most recent year for which the Cato Institute stated adequate information was available.

As per the reports, “The level of global freedom has slightly decreased (-0.04) as compared to all the countries for which we have the same data available since 2008, with 70 countries in the index increasing their ratings and 70 decreasing.”

In the top quartile of the countries in the HFI, there is only 15 per cent of the world’s population, and 34 per cent of the population lives in the bottom quartile. The human freedom’s gap coming between the freest as well as the least free nations has broadened since 2008 when comparing the top, it has increased by 6 per cent and bottom 10 per cent of nations in the HFI.

“Out of 10 countries, North America (Canada and the United States), Western Europe, and East Asia are the regions with the highest rate of freedom. The Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia have the lowest levels,” the report added.

In countries like North America, Western Europe, and East Asia, women-specific freedoms are strongest and are least secured in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

With Hong Kong being an exception, a strong relationship was found by the HFI between human freedom and democracy. The study, however, states that the effect of the unprecedented interventions of the Chinese Communist Party in the territory in 2019 and 2020, which is not reflected in the report of this year because it was based on data from 2018, is likely to significantly decrease the score of Hong Kong in the future.

Personal freedom around the world has witnessed a “notable decline since 2008”. Amongst the 12 major classifications, five of them have seen some decline in freedom of religion, the rule of law, identity and relationship freedoms seeing the largest decreases.

India’s ranking has been downgraded in the latest index that was released in 2020. In April, India was in the 142^nd position in the Press Freedom Index, which is followed by a fall of 26 spots in the Global Economic Freedom Index, September.