India has fallen 10 positions down to 51st position in the 2019 Democracy Index’s global ranking. This was according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which stated that “erosion of civil liberties” in the country is the primary reason for this downtrend.

On a scale from 0-10, India’s overall score fell from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in the Index that provides a snapshot of the current state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories.

The Democracy Index is prepared by Economist Intelligence Unit. It is the research and analysis division of The Economist Group that provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide in 165 independent states and two territories.

The index is based on factors such as electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.

Based on the total score, the countries are classified as one of four types of regime, ‘Full Democracy’ -scores greater than 8, ‘Flawed Democracy’ — scores equal to 8 or greater than 6, ‘Hybrid Regime’ — scores greater than 4 and less than or equal to 6, authoritarian regime — scores less than or equal to 4.

Norway has topped the index, with a score of 9.87, while North Korea was at the bottom of the global rankings, with a score of 1.08.

As reported by the Hindustan Times, The Democracy Index referred to the changes in Jammu and Kashmir and the controversial implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam while describing what it said was the “democratic regression” in India, the world’s largest democracy.

The Democracy Index noted that the “citizenship registration exercise” in Assam had “excluded 1.9m from the final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC)”.

It further stated that, “The new citizenship law has enraged the large Muslim population, stoked communal tensions and generated large protests in major cities.”