"Atithi Devo Bhava" (Guest is God) is an age-old mantra that defines what India stands for. With this motto, Indians have always taken pride in welcoming guests from the world over with warmth, love and respect.
But the Kindness to Strangers Index has a totally different story to tell. In reality, India has fared poorly in the global survey measuring how kind people from numerous countries are to strangers. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, enlisted 8,354 people from 34 nations to take part in a series of tests to assess their social mindfulness.
The index measures the likelihood of individuals to help strangers selflessly with no monetary return. The research went to highlight that acts of kindness and social mindfulness varied over every geographical space. The list that was led by countries like Japan and Austria had India placed right at the bottom.
But is India truly unkind towards strangers? To begin with India scored 24 out of 100 in the Migration Integration Policy Index, which assessed 52 nations on how migrants are integrated. Findings suggested that due to unfavourable policies in India, International migrants coming to India continue to face issues.
As per the World Giving Index, India's rank jumped from 106 in 2014 to 91 in 2015. But then it again slipped to the 124th position in 2018. But of late, India has been trying to improve and has moved to the 14th position. This comes after the pandemic where every Indian has been doing their best to be of some help to their fellow citizens.
However as far as the kindness to strangers in particular is concerned, India still has a long way to go.