India's status in the world today is characterized by its rapid economic
growth, increasing global influence, and ongoing social and developmental
challenges. It is a major player on the global stage, recognized as a
rising economic power with a growing voice in international affairs.
However, India also faces significant challenges related to poverty,
inequality, and social issues.
Economic Strength and Growth:
India is the world's fastest-growing major economy, with a nominal GDP that
has tripled in the last decade.
It has become the 4th largest global economy, driven by domestic reforms
and the "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" (self-reliant India) vision.
Digital transactions have surged, with UPI processing billions of
transactions annually.
India's stock market is among the largest globally, and business confidence
is high.
The country is projected to be the world's fastest-growing major economy in
the coming years.
Global Influence and Role:
India is a prominent voice in international forums and is increasingly seen
as a key partner by major global powers.
Its growing economic and military strength has enhanced its regional and
global influence.
India is actively involved in initiatives aimed at promoting global
cooperation and addressing shared challenges.
Challenges and Concerns:
Despite economic progress, India continues to grapple with issues of
poverty, inequality, and social disparities.
Social issues such as child malnutrition and gender inequality persist.
Instances of violence and discrimination against minorities, particularly
Muslims, have been reported.
Concerns remain regarding the erosion of democratic institutions and the
shrinking space for civil society.
Overall, India's status in the world today is a complex one. It is a nation
on the rise, with immense potential for economic growth and global
influence. However, it also faces significant challenges that need to be
addressed to ensure a more inclusive and equitable future for all its
citizens.
WORLD BANK 2024 REPORT
AT A GLANCE
India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and is poised to
continue on this path, with aspirations to reach high middle income status
by 2047, the centenary of Indian independence. It is also committed to
ensuring that its continued growth path is equipped to deal with the
challenges of climate change, and in line with its goal of achieving
net-zero emissions by 2070.
The growth of the past two decades has also led to India making remarkable
progress in reducing extreme poverty. Between 2011 and 2019, the country is
estimated to have halved the share of the population living in extreme
poverty - below $2.15 per person per day (2017 PPP) (World Bank Poverty and
Inequality Portal and Macro Poverty Outlook, Spring 2023). In recent years,
however, the pace of poverty reduction has slowed especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic, but has since moderated in 2021-22.
Certain challenges persist. Inequality in consumption continues, with a
Gini index of around 35 over the past two decades. Child malnutrition has
remained high, with 35.5 percent of children under the age of 5 years being
stunted, with the figure rising to 67 percent for children in the 6-59
months age group. Headline employment indicators have improved since 2020
but concerns remain about the quality of jobs created and the real growth
in wages, as well as around the low participation of women in the
laborforce.
India’s aspiration to achieve high income status by 2047 will need to be
realized through a climate-resilient growth process that delivers
broad-based gains to the bottom half of the population. Growth-oriented
reforms will need to be accompanied by an expansion in good jobs that keeps
pace with the number of labor market entrants. At the same time, gaps in
economic participation will need to be addressed, including by bringing
more women into the workforce.
The World Bank is partnering with the government in this effort by helping
strengthen policies, institutions, and investments to create a better
future for the country and its people through green, resilient, and
inclusive development.
Economic Outlook
Despite challenging global conditions, India remains the world’s fastest
growing major economy, growing at a rapid clip of 8.2 percent in FY23/24.
Growth was spurred by public investment in infrastructure and rising
household investments in real estate. A buoyant manufacturing sector grew
by 9.9 percent, while services remained resilient, compensating for the
underperformance in agriculture.
Government initiatives have sought to boost the manufacturing sector by
improving the business environment, enhancing logistics infrastructure,
improving tax efficiency and rationalizing tax rates.
Since the pandemic, urban unemployment has improved gradually, especially
for female workers, falling from 14.3 percent in FY21/22 to 9 percent in
FY24/25. Unemployment among urban youth, however, remained elevated at 16.8
percent in FY24/25.
With the narrowing of the current account deficit and strong foreign
portfolio investment, foreign exchange reserves touched an all-time high of
$670.1 billion in early August 2024.
In the medium term, growth is expected to remain positive, especially in
the services sector, reaching 7 percent in FY24/25 and remaining strong
through FY25/26 and FY26/27.
Trade will play a critical role in creating jobs and boosting growth
To boost growth and create jobs, India will need to harness its global
trade potential. In addition to IT, business services and pharma, where it
excels, India can diversify its export basket into more labor-intensive
sectors such as textiles, apparel, and footwear, as well as in electronics
and green technology products.
At present, however, the rising costs of production and declining
productivity have led to a fall in India’s share of global apparel exports
- from 4 percent in 2018 to 3 percent in 2022.
While India has taken a series of initiatives to reduce trade costs and
increase its competitiveness – by formulating the National Logistics Policy
and creating both physical and digital infrastructure - its return to
protectionist measures, particularly in tariff and non-tariff barriers has
impacted the country’s participation in international trade.
A three pronged approach - further reducing trade costs, lowering trade
barriers, and deepening integration into global value chains - can help
India achieve its ambitious target of $1 trillion for merchandise exports
by 2030.
Greater openness to trade will, in turn, enhance India’s technological
capabilities, improve productivity, spur growth, and build long-term
economic resilience.
Last Updated: Sep 16, 2024
HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) won a third term in office in June 2024. The authorities
continued to discriminate against members of minority communities.
Officials failed to take adequate action against BJP supporters responsible
for attacks, and instead targeted victims of the violence, including
through unlawful demolitions of Muslim homes and properties. Government
critics faced politically motivated prosecutions under tax and foreign
funding regulations, and the draconian counterterrorism law.
Indian authorities failed to end the ethnic violence in the northeast state
of Manipur, which has killed over 200 people and displaced more than 60,000
since May 2023.
Several foreign governments accused Indian intelligence agencies of
targeting terrorism suspects and separatist leaders for assassination in
Canada, the United States, and Pakistan. In October 2024, Canada’s national
police service issued a public statement on the alleged role of Indian
state agents in criminal activity on Canadian soil, including homicide,
extortion, and other violence. Indian authorities also canceled visas or
denied entry to government critics, including members of the diaspora.
Despite the Modi administration’s deteriorating human rights record,
several countries strengthened strategic and economic ties with India.
However, in January the European Parliament adopted a resolution that
raised urgent human rights concerns, including “violence, increasing
nationalistic rhetoric and divisive policies” against minorities. In May,
for a second consecutive year, the United Nations-linked Global Alliance of
National Human Rights Institutions deferred accreditation to India’s
National Human Rights Commission.
Jammu and Kashmir
In September, the Indian government held elections for a regional
government in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time since revoking its
special autonomous status in August 2019. While the government claimed that
it had restored peace and security in the region, many Kashmiris said that
they were voting against the continued restrictions on basic freedoms.
The Jammu region, considered relatively more peaceful, saw a spike in
violence between May and July, leading to the death of 15 soldiers and 9
civilians. As of September, there were 40 reported attacks in Jammu and
Kashmir, in which 18 civilians, 20 security force personnel, and 39
suspected militants were killed.
In March, demonstrators in the now separate territory of Ladakh demanded a
greater participation in governance. In October, Indian authorities
arbitrarily detained the prominent climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and 120
others from Ladakh, who had walked for 30 days, covering nearly
1,000-kilometers, from Leh, the provincial capital, to Delhi. The
activists, demanding a greater say in local governance and stronger
environmental safeguards, were released after 36 hours.
Religious minorities and migrant workers faced risk of targeted attacks
while hundreds of Kashmiris, including journalists and human rights
activists, remained in custody. Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram
Parvez has been jailed since November 2021 under the Unlawful Activities
Prevention of Atrocities Act (UAPA), India’s draconian counterterrorism law.
Journalists in Kashmir continued to be at risk of police interrogation,
raids, threats, physical assault, restrictions on movement, and fabricated
criminal cases. In June, authorities introduced a policy to protect public
officials in the region from alleged false complaints and recommended
punishing media publications complicit in spreading so-called
misinformation, raising concerns over government accountability and threats
to media freedom.
In several cases, the police kept people in custody by filing new
allegations after courts granted them bail or quashed detention orders. In
March, authorities filed a new UAPA case to rearrest Aasif Sultan, a
Kashmiri journalist released after spending more than five years in prison.
Impunity for Security Forces
Allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings persisted, with the
National Human Rights Commission registering 121 deaths in police custody,
1,558 deaths in judicial custody, and 93 alleged extrajudicial killings in
the first nine months in 2024.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act remained in effect in Jammu and
Kashmir and several northeastern states, providing effective immunity from
prosecution to security forces, even for serious human rights abuses.
In September, the Bangladeshi government strongly condemned the killing of
two persons at the India-Bangladesh border allegedly by India’s Border
Security Force (BSF). The BSF has frequently used excessive force along the
Bangladeshi border with impunity, targeting both Indians as well as
irregular immigrants and cattle traders from Bangladesh.
Attacks on Religious and Ethnic Minorities, Dalits, and Tribal Groups
Prime Minister Modi’s electoral campaign frequently used hate speech
against Muslims and other minorities, inciting discrimination, hostility
and violence against them.
Between June and August, there was a surge in violence by Hindu vigilantes,
assaulting Muslim men on suspicions of consuming beef or transporting
cattle for slaughter. In August, local Hindus in Haryana killed a
26-year-old Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal for allegedly consuming
beef. In Maharashtra, a 72-year-old Muslim man was harassed and beaten on a
train over suspicions of carrying beef. In August, Hindu vigilantes shot
dead a 19-year-old Hindu teenager, suspecting him of being Muslim and
smuggling cows.
Several BJP state governments demolished Muslims’ homes, businesses, and
places of worship without due process and carried out other unlawful
practices. BJP leaders dubbed these demolitions, often carried out as
apparent collective punishment against the Muslim community for communal
clashes or dissent, as “bulldozer justice.” In June, Madhya Pradesh
authorities demolished 11 Muslim houses in Mandla district, saying they had
found beef in their refrigerators, as well as animal hides and skeletal
remains of cattle. In November, the Supreme Court ruled such demolitions
were illegal and laid down guidelines to ensure adequate due process prior
to homes being demolished.
Christians in several BJP-run states risked attacks by Hindu mobs over
allegations of “illegal conversions.” In July, a group of Hindu men
attacked a pastor in Chhattisgarh state. A militant mob attacked a prayer
congregation in Madhya Pradesh state, beating up men and children. At least
12 of India’s 28 states have laws forbidding forced religious conversion
that have been used by the authoities to harass religious minorities,
especially Christians from Dalit and Adivasi communities, and have
emboldened vigilante violence.
Dalits continued to face systemic violence and caste-based discrimination.
In July, three young men in Uttar Pradesh forced a 15-year old Dalit boy to
drink urine. In August, railway police officials in Madhya Pradesh beat a
Dalit woman and her 15-year-old grandson. The rape of a 20-year old Dalit
nurse by a doctor in a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh in August once
again spotlighted that Dalit women and girls are at heightened risk of
sexual violence.
The BJP government in Chhattisgarh state, home to many tribal communities,
escalated counterinsurgency operations against Maoist rebels, leading to
abuses against villagers and allegations of extrajudicial killings. The
authorities continued to target human rights activists, including on
politically motivated charges, accusing them of being Maoists or Maoist
supporters.
In September, renewed ethnic violence in Manipur between armed groups from
the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo community and the mostly Hindu Meitei
community reportedly killed at least 11 people. Students and others
protested the violence, and some clashed with security forces and attacked
government buildings. Instead of protecting vulnerable communities and
upholding the rule of law, the BJP-run state government deepened
longstanding anger and distrust among the communities through polarizing
policies.
In July, the UN Human Rights Committee, following its review of India’s
compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
raised concerns about discrimination and violence against minority
communities including religious minorities, Dalits, and tribal groups.
Civil Society and Freedom of Association
Indian authorities used abusive foreign funding laws such as the Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), counterterrorism laws, trumped-up
financial investigations, and other means to unlawfully attack civil
society groups and activists. In February, the Central Bureau of
Investigation raided the home and offices of Harsh Mander, a prominent
human rights activist. In January, the authorities canceled the FCRA
licenses of the research institution, the Centre for Policy Researchand the
Christian charity World Vision India, which provides humanitarian support
to children in low-income communities.
In June, the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization
that works to combat threats to the global financial system, recommended
that India put in place measures to prevent the abuse of counterterrorism
policies against nongovernmental groups.
In July, the Indian government enforced three new criminal laws, replacing
the Indian penal code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian
Evidence Act. The new laws expand police powers, raising concerns about the
rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and a fair
trial.
Freedom of Expression
The government censored peaceful expression online through arbitrary and
disproportionate orders to block websites or suspend social media accounts.
In January, the authorities blocked the websites of Hindutva Watch and
India Hate Lab, which document hate speech and attacks on India’s religious
minorities. In February, following a protest by farmers in Haryana and
Punjab, the authorities blocked dozens of social media accounts, most of
them belonging to journalists reporting on the protests, farmers, union
leaders, and others supporting the movement.
The Indian government revoked visa privileges of foreign journalists
working in India and foreign citizens of Indian origin who were critical of
the government or its policies. As of June, three foreign journalists
claimed they were forced to leave India after the government refused to
renew their work permits.
Indian authorities continued to impose the largest number of internet
shutdowns globally, violating Indian law and international human rights
standards. The shutdowns disproportionately hurt socially and economically
marginalized communities by denying them access to free or subsidized food
rations and livelihoods.
In September, in a win for free speech, the Bombay High Court struck down a
2023 amendment to the Information Technology Rules that empowered the
government to establish a fact-checking unit to identify and order the
takedown of any online information about itself that it deemed to be false
or misleading.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
The rape and murder of a 31-year old doctor in a government hospital in
Kolkata city in August prompted widespread protests demanding justice and
better security and facilities at medical campuses and hospitals. The
attack cast a spotlight on how millions of Indian women remain exposed to
abuse in the workplace and continue to face severe barriers to justice for
sexual violence.
India has laws to address violence against women and protect them from
sexual harassment in the workplace. However, the authorities have failed to
effectively enforce the law or ensure complaint committees tackle sexual
harassment in both the formal and informal sectors.
Disability Rights
People with disabilities continued to be warehoused in institutions across
India. In July, 14 people living in Asha Kiran, a government-run shelter in
Delhi, died within 20 days, raising concerns about the living conditions
and quality of drinking water and food. As of August, 27 residents had died
in the institution since the beginning of 2024.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
In September, the central government announced several measures toward
inclusion of couples regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
These included a directive to treat partners in LGBTQI+ relationships as
part of the same household for issuing ration cards, no restrictions on
opening a joint bank account, and nominating a partner to receive the
account’s balance in case of death.
The measures follow an October 2023 Supreme Court ruling that failed to
legalize same-sex marriage, but directed the formation of a high-level
committee to study rights and entitlements for the LGBTQI+ community.
Refugee Rights
Rohingya Muslim refugees in India faced tightened restrictions, arbitrary
detention, violent attacks often incited by political leaders, and a
heightened risk of forced returns. Indian authorities continued to detain
hundreds of Rohingya refugees, prompting the UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination to call on the government in July to
end their arbitrary detention and refrain from their forcible deportation
and return to Myanmar.
In May, the Indian government granted the first set of citizenship
certificates under the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),
which the parliament had enacted in 2019. The law fast-tracks citizenship
requests from non-Muslims fleeing religious persecution from India’s
Muslim-majority neighbors—Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh—but
excludes Muslim refugees from those countries.
SIMILAR REPORTS ON USA ALSO
Racial justice remained a pressing human rights concern in the United
States in 2024. The US ratified the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination nearly 60 years ago but
has done far too little to implement its provisions. Living legacies of
slavery and the slaughter and dispossession of Native peoples remain
largely unaddressed.
Critical human rights issues in 2024 included abusive border policies and
denials of the rights of migrants and asylum seekers, expansion of
sometimes deadly constraints on reproductive rights, new threats to LGBT
rights, and restrictions on voting rights, abuses often targeting or
falling heaviest on communities of color.
Donald Trump was reelected as president in November. His previous record in
office and explicit campaign promises raised serious concerns about the
threats his second term as president would pose to a wide range of human
rights and to the democratic institutions tasked with upholding them.
Structural Racism and Other Discrimination
In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the two
last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Calling the decision a
miscarriage of justice, the survivors have requested a federal
investigation.
Although efforts to create a federal reparations study commission did not
advance in 2024, several state legislatures proposed measures to address
historical injustices that manifest the legacies of enslavement for Black
communities.
In June, a federal judge in Oklahoma City struck down part of a state law
that censors teaching certain gender and race topics, providing a bright
spot in a year with a spate of efforts to censor the teaching of Black
history in several states.
Students, parents, and educators continue to oppose laws that undermine
democracy by restricting classroom discussions of race, history, sexual
orientation, and gender identity, and by banning books by authors
addressing these issues. Human Rights Watch and partners documented the
harmful effects of these laws and asked the federal government to intervene
in school censorship and discrimination.
April marked the 10th anniversary of the Flint water crisis, a
policy-induced disaster where state decisions caused a dramatic increase in
lead levels in a Michigan water supply, contributing to widespread and
permanent harms especially among children in predominantly Black and Brown
communities. Water pipes throughout Flint remain contaminated and there is
no deadline to complete remediation.
Indigenous groups and partners continued the fight to halt the construction
of a lithium mine at Thacker Pass (Peehee Mu’huh) in Nevada. They contend
the mine is being built on religious and culturally significant land where
a US army unit massacred their ancestors in 1865, and will harm the area
flora, wildlife, and water supply.
The region of Louisiana widely known as “Cancer Alley,” once dominated by
plantations worked by enslaved people, hosts approximately 200 fossil fuel
and petrochemical plants, reportedly the largest concentration in the
Western Hemisphere.
The facilities are the largest source of stationary greenhouse gas
emissions in Louisiana and discharge deadly toxic pollutants,
disproportionately harming the health of Black residents, many of whom are
descended from these same enslaved communities. People living in parts of
Cancer Alley have the highest risk of cancer from industrial air pollution
in the US, more than seven times the national average. New research
revealed the toll of air pollution on maternal, reproductive, and newborn
health there, with low birthweight and preterm birth rates as much as
triple the US average.
In April 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency announced nationwide
industrial regulations that will require hundreds of fossil fuel and
petrochemical operations across the country—including 26 in Cancer Alley—to
curb toxic pollutants, reduce flaring, and increase air monitoring in
surrounding communities, including reducing emissions of the most toxic
chemicals by as much as 80 percent. The government also announced over
US$150 million to support Louisiana’s transition to renewable energy.
Criminal Legal System
The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with
roughly 2 million people held in jails, prisons, and immigration detention
facilities on any given day, and millions more on parole and probation.
Many children continue to be prosecuted as adults in all 50 states and the
US remains the only country in the world to sentence child offenders to die
in prison. Racial disparities persist at every point of the criminal
system, including police stops, searches, arrests, charging, and sentencing.
The US carried out the death penalty in eight states reaching the grim
figure of 1607 executions since 1976. Alabama conducted two executions
using nitrogen gas, an untested and inhumane method.
Violent crime rates dropped in 2023 and continued to drop in 2024, yet
misinformation and misleading narratives continued, feeding calls for the
rollback of reforms and new restrictions on pretrial release. The latter
included a law in the state of Georgia prohibiting nonprofit organizations
and charities from posting more than three cash bonds yearly; such bonds
allow accused persons to be freed from custody unless and until actually
convicted of a crime.
In its Grants Pass v. Johnson decision, the Supreme Court empowered
localities to ticket, arrest, and even imprison unhoused people for
inhabiting public spaces, including in Los Angeles, where unhoused people
make up about 1 percent of the population but 38 percent of all arrests and
citations by police.
As of November, police had killed 1225 people nationwide, exceeding the
documented number from 2023.
Immigrants and Asylum Seekers
August marked the 30th year of use of “prevention through deterrence”
tactics that funnel immigrants away from established crossings at the
US-Mexico border to more remote areas, increasing deaths and disappearances.
In June, President Joe Biden suspended the right to make an asylum claim
for immigrants who entered at the southwest border without authorization;
it could only be reinstated when certain conditions are met. In September,
he increased the conditions to be met before the suspension could be
lifted. The Department of Homeland Security also issued a regulation
establishing that asylum seekers who cross the border without authorization
“will generally be ineligible for asylum, absent exceptionally compelling
circumstances.” These measures violate US obligations under international
human rights and refugee law.
In 2023, the administration introduced a regulation requiring asylum
seekers to use the government’s CBP One app and limiting asylum access for
people who cross the border between ports of entry or who do not seek
asylum in a country of transit. Although 765,000 people from January 2023
through July 2024 were able to schedule appointments using the app, many
lacked access and others reported difficulties using the app. Individuals
waited months in Mexico, which exposed them to abuse and violence.
Texas’ Operation Lone Star, a program which purports to enforce federal
immigration laws, has led to injuries and deaths, racial discrimination,
abusive detention conditions, and a chilling effect on freedoms of
association and expression. Texas National Guard members fired pepper spray
projectiles on migrants, including children.
Democracy and the Right to Vote
In May, the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing racial discrimination
in the drawing of voting maps, dismissing the voices of Black voters
challenging gerrymandering. In June, in Trump v. United States, justices
ruled that former President Donald Trump could not be criminally indicted
for at least some of his actions trying to overturn the results of the 2020
presidential election. The latter opinion established a broad scope of
presidential immunity for “official acts” while in office, a decision with
potentially devastating consequences for democracy and human rights if
interpreted to give presidents an absolute shield from prosecution for
illegal attempts to overturn election results, serious human rights abuses,
or comparably egregious misconduct.
The US continues to deny many people the right to vote because of contact
with the criminal legal system, while most countries in the world never or
rarely deny the right to vote because of a conviction. In April, Nebraska
passed a reform that would restore the right to vote to at least 7,000
people with felony convictions. The law was set to go into effect in July
2024 but currently faces legal challenges.
More than one million US citizens, many with disabilities, have restricted
political rights due to guardianship. At least seven states bar those under
guardianship from voting, using outdated, sometimes denigrating laws.
Despite conflicting with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other
federal laws, these statutes remain unchallenged in courts.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights
The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision eliminating the constitutional right to
abortion continued to have far-reaching and often devastating impacts on
health and lives.
At this writing, 12 states had banned abortion and others harshly
restricted access. People seeking pregnancy-related health services,
including for miscarriages or obstetric complications, experienced
life-threatening delays and denials of care. Laws forcing parental
involvement in abortion continued to harm young people under 18.
Stark differences between states led to a surge in difficult and costly
travel across state lines for care.
Abortion bans and restrictions disproportionately harmed Black, Indigenous,
and other people of color.
Some states moved to safeguard and expand abortion access. Voters in seven
states approved ballot measures creating protections for abortion access.
New York joined several other states in allowing Medicaid coverage for
doula care.
Racial disparities in access to health care continue to impact women of
color, and especially Black women in the South, who face a disproportionate
risk of dying from cervical cancer, a highly preventable and treatable
disease.
Maternal health inequities remain a serious problem. Maternal death rates
in 2022 were significantly higher for Black women (49.5 per 100,000) than
white women (19 per 100,000). Preterm birth rates also remained higher for
Black women than for other women. The percentage of people accessing
prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy declined.
Child Labor
Children continue to be injured and killed while working in dangerous and
exploitative conditions in meat processing plants, factories, and other
locations. The Labor Department reported an 88 percent increase in child
labor violations since 2019. As of November, eight states had enacted
legislation in 2024 weakening child labor protections. Congress and the
Biden administration failed to pass legislation or update regulations to
protect children working in agriculture, the deadliest sector for child
workers.
LGBT Rights
Many state lawmakers continue to target the rights of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Fewer than half of US states have
statutory protections prohibiting discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity. The US has failed to enact comprehensive
federal legislation that expressly protects LGBT people from discrimination
in areas such as education, housing, public accommodations, and federally
funded programs.
The rights of transgender individuals, especially teens, continued to be a
political lightning rod in the US in 2024 at the expense of their health
and wellbeing. As of September 2024, 26 states banned at least some
best-practice medical care for transgender children under age 18, and six
criminalized such care as a felony offense. Twenty-six states prohibited
transgender children from participating in sports consistent with their
gender identity, 11 states banned discussions of sexual orientation and
gender identity in schools, and 8 states required school personnel to
disclose students’ gender identity to their parents. Thirteen states
prohibited transgender people from using bathrooms consistent with their
gender identity in schools, with some of these bans encompassing other
public facilities as well.
Older People’s Rights
In April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released minimum
staffing standards for nursing homes. University of Pennsylvania research
showed their implementation could save thousands of lives annually. The
American Health Care Association, other nursing home providers, and 20
states filed lawsuits to block implementation.
Technology and Rights
The US has no federal data protection law, leaving personal data open to
abuse by government and private actors.
Federal agencies are considering regulation of artificial intelligence and
data protection, including its use for national security purposes. Binding
laws and regulations are necessary and should be informed by civil society
and public inputs, and developed independently from private companies.
Federal agencies took further action against surveillance companies
involved in abusive practices. The Commerce Department announced and then
withdrew sanctions against Canadian surveillance software company,
Sandvine. The Treasury Department issued targeted sanctions against
Intellexa, a Greek company that develops Predator spyware, which has been
misused worldwide to target journalists, human rights workers, and
opposition politicians.
The Department of Homeland Security purchased software from the Israeli
spyware company, Paragon Solutions, for use by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. The Biden administration then stopped that contracted work to
evaluate its legality under the 2023 executive order prohibiting the use of
spyware.
Significant US Foreign Policy Developments
The Biden administration did not consistently include human rights
considerations in foreign policy. It sent military aid to governments that
violated international law like Egypt and Israel, sold arms to autocratic
governments like Saudi Arabia, and sent Ukraine indiscriminate cluster
munitions and anti-personnel landmines. President Biden hosted heads of
state from Kenya and United Arab Emirates without public condemnation of
those governments’ rights violations, and was reluctant to use leverage
with allies like Rwanda and Ethiopia to curb their abuses.
However, US sanctions against a former Haitian president, Ugandan
officials, leaders of the abusive Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, and
violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank, were important for
accountability and to deter further abuses. The US successfully pushed for
the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua and Vietnam, deployed a
special envoy for Sudan, helped prevent the overturning of Guatemala’s 2023
elections, and led the creation of a mission to protect civilians in Haiti.
KR ALL ARE INTERNATIONAL REPORTS AND JUDGE THE FAIRNESS OF THE
INDIAN GOVT BY YOURSELF
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