Global Democracy Index is released annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Ranking is given by computing the countries on democratic scale. A total of 167 countries were included in the ranking of the year 2017. In 167 countries Norway was ranked first and North Korea was ranked second.
Five categories are used to prepare this index. These five categories include electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, governance of the government, political participation and political culture. Based on 60 points, different countries are included in one of the four categories of democracy. In these four categories, full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian democracy are included.
Status of India in this index:
India's fall in this index. In this index, there has been a decline in India's position. India has been ranked 42nd, whereas last year India got 32nd rank in this index.
In the index, India is placed in the category of flawed democracy.
This proves that the democratic system in India is constantly getting weak. It is known that India is granted the status of the world's largest democracy.
Major factors responsible for the decline in India's position in this index:
In recent times, tolerance has decreased in India. A special class is being targeted for issues like cow protection and efforts are being made to spoil communal harmony.
Media and media workers are being attacked. For example, journalist Gauri Lankesh was recently murdered. Gauri Lankesh was known for criticizing Hindu extremists.
Laws like AFSPA are still going on. Under this, human rights are violated, on which the Supreme Court has also made a tough stand.
Crime against Dalits has increased. The incident of Dalit oppression in Gujarat was a topic of discussion at the national level.
Above all, women's involvement in politics has remained very low. Proper efforts are not being made to increase their involvement.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the Democracy index mentions the status of democracy in different countries of the world. In this index, there has been a significant decline in India's position compared to the previous year, which unveils the weakness of the democratic system.
