Freedom is the power to act, speak and think as one wants without hindrance or restraint and the absence of a despotic government. Freedom House, a US-based Human rights watchdog releases the report titled “Freedom in the World 2021 – Democracy under Siege”. There is a decline in global democracy over the last 15 years. Nearly 75% of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration over the last year. Finland, Norway, and Sweden are the most free countries in the world, with a score of 100. While the least free countries are Tibet and Syria, with a score of 1.
Freedom in the World report is an annual global report that tracks political rights and civil liberties. The report has been produced since 1973. The report’s methodology is derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN General Assembly adopted the declaration in 1948. The report assesses the individual’s real-world rights and freedoms. It doesn’t focus on governments or government performance in Human Rights.
The 2021 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The countries are awarded scores based on Political rights indicators such as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, and government functioning and Civil liberties indicators are related to freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy, and individual rights. These two score totals are then weighted equally to determine a country/territory’s status of a) Free b) Partly Free or c) Not Free. Countries are ranked from 1 to 100, 100 being the ranking for the freest country.
India’s rank has fallen from 83 to 88 out of 195 countries and 15 territories. India’s score decreased from 71 to 67. India’s status has been downgraded from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’. The report has highlighted the following reasons for the downgrade: