India Ranks 122nd On New Global Youth Development Index

The Commonwealth Secretariat on Tuesday, August 10, ranked India 122 in the 2020 Global Youth Development Index, which measures the status of young people in 181 countries around the world. The triennial ranking judges countries on parameters like education and employment of young people.

Though India's rank may not look very optimistic, the report has found promising trends for the country. India was among the top five risers on the index in the period between 2010-2018. With an 18.8 per cent improvement, India showed the second biggest advancement after Afghanistan with a 19.9 per cent change. The top five countries that showed the most improvement were Afghanistan, India, Russia, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. The top risers advanced their score on an average by 15.74 per cent.

Syria, with a per cent change of –19.9, witnessed the most deterioration in the raking between 2010-2018. Ukraine, Libya, Yemen and Jordan made it to the list of countries with the largest deteriorations.

Singapore Tops Overall Ranking

The Youth Development Index looks at the state of 1.8 people across the globe in the age group of 15 to 29 years. The countries are ranked between 0.00 (lowest) and 1.00 (highest) and are judged in areas like education, employment, health and political and civic participation.

This time, Singapore topped the list, followed by Slovenia and Norway. Other countries at the top include Malta, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.

Central African Republic and Chad found themselves at the bottom of the pile with rankings of 180 and 181, respectively. Despite the meteoric improvement, Afghanistan was one of the worst-ranked countries on the list. It stood at the fourth-last position with the rank of 178.

Index Shows Global Improvement

Between 2010 and 2018, the condition of young people has improved globally by 3.1 percent. The improvement is driven by increasing youth participation in peace processes and advancement in education, employment and health. With a 1.6 per cent decline in global youth mortality, health made the most gains of 4.39 per cent across the world.

One area which still needs global attention is women's safety that showed no progress in the period.

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