Goa is the safest state for women while Bihar, Uttar Pradesh are worst states
New Delhi, November 3: Which is the safest city for women? Is there any? Yes, Goa is the safest state for women while Delhi is the worst state when it comes to the safety of girls and women, according to the findings of ‘Plan India’ report released by the Women and Child Development Ministry.
The safest state to be a woman in India is Goa, followed by Kerala, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur. States, where women and girls are the most vulnerable, are Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and, perhaps not so surprisingly, Delhi.
Delhi came in just two positions shy of being the worst state when it comes to the safety of girls and women, faring better only than Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, while Goa topped the list.
The findings of the first-ever gender vulnerability index (GVI) are expected to help identify the challenges women face with respect to four parameters education, health, poverty and protection against violence and assist policymakers mark out priorities.
The index puts Goa on top with a GVI of 0.656, more than the national average of 0.5314.The index scores are on a scale of zero to one. The closer the score is to one, the better the performance. Goa also ranks first in protection, fifth in education, sixth in health and survival, and eighth in poverty.
Kerala ranks second, with a GVI of 0.634, primarily for its achievements in the area of health. At the bottom of the table is Bihar, with a GVI of 0.410, women and girls being the most vulnerable, less healthy and poorer among the 30 states. Education is also ranked among the lowest, and protection is unsatisfactory; 39% of girls got married before the legal age while 12.2% aged 15-19, when surveyed, were either mothers or pregnant.
Delhi ranks at 28, with a GVI score of 0.436, pulled down by its poor track record in education and protection, with the former ranked worst.
Jharkhand ranks ahead of Delhi at 27 and Uttar Pradesh trails at 29 with GVIs of 0.450 and 0.434, respectively. The study’s dataset was based on 170 indicators on which data is available across all states, including Census 2011.
