Freedom in the World 2021

In News

Recently, Freedom House has downgraded India’s status from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free‘ in its annual report, Freedom in the World 2021.

About the Report

• It is an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country and a select group of territories.
• Coverage
  • The 2021 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories from 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020.
• Methodology
  • Derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948.
  • The report is based on the premise that these standards apply to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.
• Assessment
  • The report assesses the real-world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government performance per se.
  • Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and non-state actors, including insurgents and other armed groups.
• Scoring Process
  • It uses a two-tiered system consisting of scores and status.
  • The combination of the overall score awarded for 10 political rights indicators and the overall score awarded for 15 civil liberties indicators, after being equally weighted, determines the status of Free, Partly Free, or Not Free.

Major Highlights

• Global Status
  • Less than 20 percent of the world’s population now lives in a Free country, the smallest proportion since 1995.
  • Pointing to a decline in global democracy over the last 15 years, the report said that nearly 75% of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration over the last year.
  • The freest countries in the world are Finland, Norway and Sweden with a score of 100, while the least free countries are Tibet and Syria with a score of 1.
• Indian Status
  • In 2021, India’s score is 67, which has come down from 71 in 2020, downgraded from the ‘free’ to the ‘partly free’ category.
  • Impact
    • India’s fall from the upper ranks of free nations could have a particularly damaging impact on global democratic standards.
• Reasons for the Decrease as per the Report
  • Frequent attacks on press freedom and reporting in the name of security, defamation, sedition and contempt of court, etc.
  • Rising Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of founding values like inclusion and equal rights for all.
  • Less internet freedom and increased social media censorship.
  • Covid-19 induced lockdown and displacement of migrants.
  • Crackdown on protesters opposing the citizenship laws.
  • Formations of new laws prohibiting forced religious conversion through interfaith marriage.