India ranked 117th among 129 nations in inclusiveness index by US varsity

PUDUCHERRY: India is ranked 117th in the list of 129 countries in the world in the inclusiveness index published by the Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI) at California University, United States. Smaller countries like Bangladesh (106) and Israel (115) were placed better than India.

The index examines inclusivity in terms of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and the general population using several measures. The measures include out-group violence, political representation, income inequality, anti-discrimination laws, rate of incarceration, and immigration/ asylum policies, as per a release from OBI.

India was ranked last (129) in religion inclusiveness, 121st in gender, 108th in disability, 87th in race, 40th in the general population, and 39th in LGBTQ.

Villupuram MP D Ravikumar said the BJP-led Union government instead of brushing aside the findings and declaring that the study was an attempt to tarnish the image of the country globally must take concrete action to set right the inequality.

New Zealand finished first in the index for the second consecutive year. Portugal recorded its best showing by securing second place (up from 5th place in 2022) followed by the Netherlands in the third place.

Iran was placed at the bottom of the global list. Yemen, which has been devastated by the Saudi-led invasion performed poorly followed by the Comoros Islands, a former French colony located off the southeastern coast of Africa.

OBI has been publishing the inclusiveness index from 2016 ranking the countries by their levels of inclusion using a number of indicators. This year for the first time, OBI included an indicator for a country’s response to the climate crisis by considering its change in greenhouse gas emissions.


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