Indianomix by Vivek Dehejia & Rupa Subramanya

Author:Vivek Dehejia & Rupa Subramanya [Dehejia, Vivek & Subramanya, Rupa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788184003666
Publisher: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
Published: 2015-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

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Sure, India could be a dangerous place for women. Whether it’s domestic violence, neglect of the girl child, sex-selective abortion, or the continuing prevalence of dowry, all of which are widely reported almost every day, life in India does seem tough for its women. But is it worse than in other countries we suspect might also be dangerous for women? Can you quantify such things?

In June 2011, newspapers carried the headline that India is, in fact, the ‘fourth most dangerous’ country in the world for women. It was just ahead of Somalia. Afghanistan was the worst, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan. What was this conclusion based on? Was it an analysis of the relevant statistics that were compiled into an index? No. It was based on a survey of 213 experts conducted by TrustLaw, a service providing information on women’s rights that’s run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The experts spanned the spectrum from academics, aid professionals, journalists, policymakers, and development specialists. They were asked for their opinion on what they thought the most dangerous places in the world were, with a series of separate follow-up questions on dimensions of women’s safety such as health, access to economic resources, cultural or religious discrimination, sexual violence, and the risk of being subjected to human trafficking.

The final number was arrived at by adding together and weighing the responses of all of these experts. So, would it be correct to say that a survey found India to be the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women? No. A more accurate, though less spicy, way of putting it would be that among a survey of experts, India showed up in fourth place when these experts’ opinions on how dangerous different countries are for women were added together. It doesn’t necessarily mean that, in any statistically meaningful sense, India (or any other country) is actually fourth (or first, or tenth) most dangerous. A survey like this is only as valuable as the level of faith you put in experts and the methodology of adding opinions together into one composite number.

Psychological research tells us that human beings instinctively dislike uncertainty. We want definite answers to questions that are intrinsically difficult to tackle. We like easily digestible and understandable information, such as lists of the ‘Top 10’: whether it’s billionaires or most dangerous countries. Information that helps us understand and analyse our difficult world is particularly sought after, especially if it’s cloaked in the garb of expert truth. If you’ve watched toothpaste ads, you’ll recall seeing the virtues of this or the other toothpaste brand being extolled by a serious-looking ‘expert’ (usually an actor, the fine print tells you) clad in a white lab coat. And don’t forget the talking heads on TV, who are almost always well groomed and snazzily dressed, as if that had anything to do with the quality of their information or insight.

And if understanding the present weren’t hard enough, we also want to know what’s going

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