USCIRF recommends that the US government designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern”.United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF, 2021 Report names the Indian government as a promoter of “Hindu nationalist policies” Including

• Attacks, including “police violence” and “ambushes by political activists”
• Pressure to toe government line through “coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks” – particularly violent against women, calls for murder, “criminal prosecutions” including “sedition” charges punishable by life imprisonment.
• Control over coverage, using COVID, by “prosecuting journalists providing information at variance with the official position.”
• “Utterly Orwellian content regulations” and closure of media outlets like the valley’s leading daily, the Kashmir Times in Kashmir.

The European Parliament’s Foreign AffairsCommittee Report expresses concern over “deteriorating human rights situation in India” including

• “Lack of safe working environment” for human rights defenders and journalists
• “Charges brought against people for simply having exercised their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”
• “Use of laws to stifle dissent” including UAPA and FCRA
• CAA which is “fundamentally discriminatory in nature against Muslims and dangerously divisive”.
• Amnesty International being “compelled to close its offices in India” after its bank accounts were frozen”.
Report encourages India, as “the world’s largest democracy” to
• Demonstrate it’s commitment to the “rights to freedom of expression for all, including online” as well as “the right to peaceful assembly and association, including in relation to the latest large-scale farmers’ protests”
• “Cease invoking laws against sedition and terrorism… including in Jammu and Kashmir”

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranks India 140 out of 156 countries and shows that

• India slipped 28 places
• Is 3rd worst performer in South Asia
• In bottom 5 globally for Health and Survival
• In bottom 10 globally for Estimated Earned Income of Women (1/5th of that of men)
• It’s share of women among ministers has halved
• Women’s labour force participation rate including share of women in professional and technical roles has decreased
• More than 1 in 4 women has faced intimate violence
• 1/3rd of women are illiterate