File photo

NEW DELHI: IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said that issues related to women’s safety are a “social problem”, and said steps are being taken by the government.

Addressing an Indian Professionals Forum summit at Asia House in London, Prasad strongly refuted a recent survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation that ranked India as the world’s most dangerous country for women, followed by Afghanistan and Syria.

He noted the report had spoken to just 200-300 women in India out of a population of an estimated 1.3 billion.

“Let us not single out any country. Any problem of women’s safety is unfortunate. It is a social problem...we have to work together to address these issues,” he said. “We have taken steps and in the case of rape, we changed the law to bring in capital punishment (in cases involving minors).”

