61% Indians Helped Strangers in 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic: World Giving Index

India has stood among the top-20 generous countries, according to the CAF World Giving Index 2021. India has bagged the 14th spot and is up from the 10-year global rank of 82. “India is one of the fastest climbers on the Index, it ranks 14 this year, in the 10th Anniversary report, India ranked 82,” the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) latest survey said. As per the report, 61% more Indians have helped a stranger during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic year. Last year, 36% of Indians donated money, 34% volunteered for social causes in the country.

Communities around the world mobilised to help fellow citizens during the pandemic, resulting in the highest ‘helped a stranger’ figures since 2009. More than half (55%) of the world’s adults – or 3 billion people – reported helping someone they didn’t know in 2020, according to the survey.

Besides, more people donated money in 2020 than had done so in the last five years (31%). Levels of volunteering in 2020 are broadly unchanged at the global level, it added.

Globally, developed countries like the USA, Canada, Ireland, the UK, and the Netherlands fell out of the highest ranking, only Australia and New Zealand maintained the top-10 ranking. Interestingly, poor countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana were spotted under the top-10 generous countries in the CAF 2021 index.

The most generous country in the world is Indonesia. Indonesia is ranked first in the CAF World Giving Index with a score of 69, followed by Kenya (2); Nigeria (3); Myanmar (4); Australia (5); Ghana (6); New Zealand (7); Uganda (8); Kosovo (9), and Thailand (10). In the 2019 10-year Index, the US was ranked at the top.

The CAF World Giving Index is based on data from Gallup’s World View World Poll. The data has been included for 114 countries, representing over 90% of the global adult population.