Freedom in the World 2021 Report
Freedom House, a U.S.-based, non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) recently released the report titled “Freedom in the World 2021 – Democracy under Siege”. Freedom House is a US-based Human rights watchdog.
What is Freedom House?
Freedom House is U.S. government-funded, non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt served as its first honorary chairpersons.
About Freedom in the World report
- Freedom in the World is a yearly survey and report by the U.S.-based non-governmental organization Freedom House that measures the degree of civil liberties and political rights in every nation and significant related and disputed territories around the world.
- Freedom in the World was launched in 1973 by Raymond Gastil. It produces annual scores representing the levels of political rights and civil liberties in each state and territory, on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free).
- Depending on the ratings, the nations are then classified as "Free", "Partly Free", or "Not Free".
- The report is often used by researchers in order to measure democracy and correlates highly with several other measures of democracy such as the Polity data series.
- The Freedom House rankings are widely reported in the media and used as sources by political researchers. Their construction and use has been evaluated by critics and supporters.
- The countries are awarded scores based on:
- Political rights indicatorssuch as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, and government functioning.
- Civil liberties indicators arerelated to freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy, and individual rights.
About Freedom in the World 2021 report
- The Freedom in the World 2021 report has downgraded India’s status from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’.
- The 2021 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020.
- 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.
India’s rank in Freedom in the World 2021 report
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’.
Reasons for the downgrade India’s Rank
- Use of the sedition law and other charges in recent years to deter free speech
- Government’s coronavirus response including the lockdown.
- The migrant crisis and violent and discriminatory enforcement by police and civilian vigilantes
- Attack on Minorities
- The decrease in Judicial Independence among others.
- The Freedom House report has listed “Indian Kashmir” separately and retained its status as last year of “not free”. The score fell from 28 to 27.
- India’s Internet Freedom Score has stayed at 51. However, the report has stated that Internet freedom in India has declined dramatically for a third straight year. It is due to reasons like Internet shutdowns, blocked content, misinformation spread by political leaders, online harassment among others.
