26 October, 2011

Life in India vs Life in USA

It has always appalled me whenever tarnished image of India is presented to the world. Switch on a channel like BBC. Whenever, they have to show images of India, they will show naked sadhus, cows and bullocks on the roads, children defecating out in open. You talk to NRI's (I usually call them non reliable Indians), they seem so apologetic about their own country. They harp about pollution, corruption, crime, etc. Indians love to hate themselves for almost everything. Whenever a resident Indian meets a foreigner or even a non-resident Indian, the resident is apologetic about potholes on roads, about cattle on streets, about stray dogs, about corruption, about uncouth politicians, about this and about that. If an Indian is proud of anything, it is generally about the past - history, religion, spirituality etc. Regarding today's India, Indians show pride on the achievements of software industry. Once that has been discussed, it is back to the usual routine of being apologetic.


I have lived my life in India for 40 years plus. I have traveled all over the world. Stayed in different countries and cities (Europe/US) for months. So I know what I am talking, when I talk about India so proudly. I am not just proud of India's heritage, culture, history, values, spirituality etc. I am actually proud of and in love with India, in which I am staying today. When I take my friends, buyers, clients, relatives from overseas and show them around, they are baffled. Often, I hear them say that this is not how they had perceived and pictured India as. That is so, because the imagery and perception about India, that has been created by media, bloggers, etc is so tarnished. Without experiencing it themselves, they write from third party based information.


People complain about crime, drugs, poverty, mugging, chain snatching incidents of India. For your information, India has one of the lowest rates of sexual crimes in the world. According to National Crime Research Bureau of India, rape rate in India is just about 1.5 per 100,000, while it is about 32 per 100,000 in USA. Indian police forces are among the most primitive and corrupt ones in the world. Judicial system is not much better. USA is the richest country of the world. The police force of USA is equipped with the best possible equipment and is trained in the best possible manner. Americans take pride in their efficient judicial system. The natural question that comes to one's mind is -- in spite of undoubted superiority of US law enforcement system, why is it that women are relatively much safer in India than in USA?
It is not just the women who are unsafe in USA. Chances of burglary in USA are more than double compared to Mumbai. The chances of being robbed in rich USA are about six times higher than in poor slum-infested Mumbai. Assault or threat of assault in USA is at least thrice as likely as in Mumbai. And if you park your car on an American street, you are ten times more likely to see your car vandalized.

In India, we have not heard of woman killing her own children and chopping them in pieces and throwing them in a lake for the sake of her lover. This happens only in US of A. In India, 8-9 year old does not enter school premises with a gun and openly fires at school children. In India, we have far less cyber crimes. In India, we do not have psychopaths raping women on spree and chopping their bodies.

Personally, I have faced thefts in New York, Europe, etc but never in my home country.
I feel safe to party alone at late hours of night in Delhi. I would not take a train in late hours in New York. It will be an invitation to mugging. If you talk about poverty and drugs in India, you just have to take a look at any of the subways and metros of the world, strewed with beggars and drug addicts. Take a look at the senior citizens and their plight, in the so called "modern, developed and advanced" nations of the world. Take a look at unwed pregnant girls there. Take a look at jobless and unemployed youth after the markets crashed. Take a look at divorce and suicide rates. Take a look at cases of child molestation. And you still are proud to be an NRI? One random chain snatching incidence in India and you are ready to pull it down and hale in the glory of US of A.

The statistics provided by UNICRI do not really convey the terrible state of affairs in the so-called developed world. The following facts about United States of America are startling:
  • In the United States, 1.3 women are raped every minute. That results in 78 rapes each hour, 1872 rapes each day, 56160 rapes each month and 683,280 rapes each year.


  • 1 out of every 3 American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.


  • The United States has the world's highest rape rate of the countries that publish such statistics. It's 4 times higher than Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than Japan.


  • 83% of rape cases are ages 24 or under.


  • 1 in 4 college women have either been raped or suffered attempted rape.


  • 1 in 12 males students surveyed had committed acts that met the legal definition of rape. Furthermore, 84% of the men who had committed such acts said what they had done was definitely not rape.


  • Only 16% of rapes are ever reported to the police.




  • About 44% of rape victims are under age 18. Three out of every twenty victims (15%) are under age 12. (Sex Offenses and Offenders. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1997.)


  • Seven percent of girls in grades five to eight and twelve percent of girls in grades nine through twelve said they had been sexually abused. (Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls, 1998.)


  • Three percent of boys in grades five through eight and five percent of boys in grades nine through twelve said they had been sexually abused. (Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Boys, 1998.)


  • Approximately 66% of rape victims know their assailant. (2000 NCVS.)


  • Approximately 48% of victims are raped by a friend or acquaintance; 30% by a stranger; 16% by an intimate; 2% by another relative; and in 4% of cases the relationship is unknown.


  • 61% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Those rapists, of course, never serve a day in prison. (1999 NCVS)


  • If the rape is reported to police, there is a 50.8% chance that an arrest will be made. If an arrest is made, there is an 80% chance of prosecution. If there is a prosecution, there is a 58% chance of a felony conviction. If there is a felony conviction, there is a 69% chance the convict will spend time in jail. So, even in the 39% of attacks that are reported to police, there is only a 16.3% chance the rapist will end up in prison. Factoring in unreported rapes, about 6% of rapists - 1 out of 16 - will ever spend a day in jail. 15 out of 16 will walk free.

Crime Statistics > Total crimes (most recent) by country

VIEW DATA:  Totals 
Definition     Source      Printable version   
   Bar Graph  Pie Chart  Map 

Showing latest available data.
Rank  Countries  Amount  
# 1    United States:11,877,218 
# 2    United Kingdom:6,523,706 
# 3    Germany:6,507,394 
# 4    France:3,771,850 
# 5    Russia:2,952,370 
# 6    Japan:2,853,739 
# 7    South Africa:2,683,849 
# 8    Canada:2,516,918 
# 9    Italy:2,231,550 
# 10    India:1,764,630 
# 11    Korea, South:1,543,220 
# 12    Mexico:1,516,029 
# 13    Netherlands:1,422,863 
# 14    Poland:1,404,229 
# 15    Argentina:1,340,529 
# 16    Sweden:1,234,784 
# 17    Belgium:973,548 
# 18    Spain:923,271 
# 19    Chile:593,997 
# 20    Thailand:565,108 
# 21    Ukraine:553,594 
# 22    Austria:552,411 
# 23    Finland:520,194 
# 24    Denmark:491,026 
# 25    New Zealand:427,230 
# 26    Hungary:420,782 
# 27    Czech Republic:372,341 
# 28    Zimbabwe:351,153 
# 29    Norway:330,071 
# 30    Romania:312,204 
# 31    Switzerland:307,631 
# 32    Turkey:286,482 
# 33    Morocco:283,702 
# 34    Venezuela:236,165 
# 35    Portugal:218,360 
# 36    Colombia:214,192 
# 37    Malaysia:167,173 
# 38    Peru:161,621 
# 39    Bulgaria:148,915 
# 40    Uruguay:134,010 
# 41    Belarus:132,867 
# 42    Tunisia:130,375 
# 43    Slovakia:107,373 
# 44    Greece:102,783 
# 45    Croatia:101,853 
# 46    Lithuania:92,646 
# 47    Philippines:85,776 
# 48    Saudi Arabia:84,599 
# 49    Slovenia:81,697 
# 50    Ireland:81,274 
# 51    Hong Kong:80,592 
# 52    Iceland:60,242 
# 53    Zambia:59,426 
# 54    Estonia:57,799 
# 55    Latvia:49,329 
# 56    El Salvador:44,762 
# 57    Costa Rica:40,263 
# 58    Jamaica:39,188 
# 59    Kyrgyzstan:38,620 
# 60    Moldova:36,302 
# 61    Mauritius:35,943 
# 62    Bolivia:31,138 
# 63    Luxembourg:26,046 
# 64    Yemen:24,066 
# 65    Panama:21,058 
# 66    Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of:19,814 
# 67    Kuwait:19,350 
# 68    Burma:18,301 
# 69    Malta:17,023 
# 70    Azerbaijan:15,520 
# 71    Georgia:15,029 
# 72    Papua New Guinea:13,292 
# 73    Cyprus:13,023 
# 74    Armenia:12,048 
# 75    Oman:11,782 
# 76    Nepal:8,872 
# 77    Dominica:7,857 
# 78    Maldives:7,026 
# 79    Qatar:5,838 
# 80    Albania:5,303 
# 81    Seychelles:4,297 
# 82    Montserrat:751 
Total:63,531,202  
Weighted average:774,770.8  
This is American mentality.They can so easiliy accuse the others but still commit most crime.