India is the 14th most charitable country: World Giving Index

The generosity quotient of Indians is on the rise even as the Covid-19 pandemic erodes the peace and tranquility of mankind.

As the world grappled with the crippling effect of the coronavirus pandemic, one thing that stood out in this huge crisis is that how some of the countries have responded with unparalleled generosity.

The World Giving Index (WGI) 2021 which is released by the Charities Aid Foundation’s (CAF), highlights the impact of lockdowns on charitable giving of countries across the globe. This year’s World Giving Index tells a truly remarkable story of India.

The significance and importance of the ability to act across borders have become more apparent than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic, as societies and communities around the world have found themselves in need of support or in a position to offer it to others.

India is now in the top 20 most generous countries in the world at 14th position. Only Australia and New Zealand, where the survey was undertaken in the weeks before the first wave of the pandemic took hold and maintained their top 10 rankings.

Indonesia is ranked first in the CAF World Giving Index with a score of 69, up from 59 in 2018.

“This year’s pandemic special was an eye-opening report to put together and speaks to the huge impact that Covid has had on giving across the globe – be it the surge of people who helped a stranger around the world as the crisis struck, the increasing generosity of African nations or the devastating impact of the lost opportunities to volunteer and fundraise that we are seeing in some of the world’s most generous countries.”

India is among the countries that have increased its World Giving Index score over the past five years. Countries that have a score for at least four of the last five years (including both 2016 and 2020) have been ranked according to the improvement in their overall Index over that period in the report.

Risers 2021

1 Georgia
2 Paraguay
3 Ethiopia
4 Bulgaria
5 Vietnam
6 Serbia
7 Bangladesh
8 China
9 Ukraine
10 India

Several countries have moved up the rankings and made their first appearance in the top 10, including Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and Kosovo – but whilst their overall giving scores have increased somewhat, their rise is driven by the relative decline of other countries.

This World Giving Index report provides insight into the scope and nature of giving around the world and looks at three aspects of giving behaviour:

Helping a stranger, or someone you didn’t know who needed help

Donating money to a charity

Volunteering to an organisation

Indian helped strangers in need

Communities around the world mobilised to help fellow citizens during the pandemic, resulting in the highest ‘helped a stranger’ figures since 2009. More people helped a stranger in 2020 than at any time since 2009 as per the global report.

“In India last year many individuals, volunteers, NGOs, RWAs, spiritual and other community institutions, such as Gurdwaras came out to help people, migrant labours, and others who were in need of support. About 61 percent of Indians helped strangers last year,” according to Meenakshi Batra, chief executive of CAF India.

Japan least generous

Among the lowest-scoring countries, Japan ranked last with an index of 12, down from 22 in 2018. According to the report Japan has historically had an unusually limited civil society for an advanced industrialised nation – the rules around charitable giving are complex, expectations of state provision are high, and organized nonprofits are a relatively new phenomenon.