Women tourists afraid to visit India after Nirbhaya gang rape

Policymakers who formulate the policies with regard to tourism need to sit up and take notice that, while there has been a marginal increase in traffic of overseas tourists, it is a fact that women tourists are fighting shy of India. This could be attributed to the shocking Nirbhaya gang rape of 2012.
Government data has revealed how growth in women tourist arrivals has dropped from 11.6% in 2013 to 9.7% in 2014. The total foreign tourist arrivals, on the other hand, has increased by 10.2% in 2014 as compared to 2% the previous year.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 March 2016.

Their fears are genuine because, because as per data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 384 cases of crime against women tourists from overseas registered in 2014. The maximum number of cases were registered in Delhi (135), followed by Goa (66) and Uttar Pradesh (64). The corresponding NCRB data for previous years is not available. The ministry has already introduced a few measures to counter the impression that the country is dangerous for women travelers. One of these is a 24- hour multi-lingual helpline and deployment of tourist police at popular destinations. This helpline is available in 10 international languages that include Arabic, French, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. Moreover, the ministry has also issued guidelines to states to devise measures for better protect and safety of tourists. One of these is to popularize some tips for travelers like taking a picture of a taxi's number plate before boarding it.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Another Nirbhaya case in Chandigarh – 13-year-old girl jumps off moving bus to avoid molestation and dies

#Nirbhaya #Chandigarh #molesters The death of a 13-year-old girl in Chandigarh when she jumped out of a mobbing bus to escape molestation by passengers in the bus reveals how unsafe it is for women and young girls to travel in a public transport like a bus.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 30 April 2015.

Those with evil intentions thumb their noses at the Law and the results prove that crime against women in India is not an easy crime to control. The Nirbhaya case that happened in New Delhi had left the world numb and large promises had been made by politicians that strict action would be taken to prevent recurrence of such cases. But, for all practical purposes, the promises were hollow, the tears shed were crocodile tears.
It seems this 13-year-old girl was traveling with her mother and younger brother in an AC bus operated by Orbit Bus Service. The service is believed to be owned by the family of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal. It was night time and, when the bus was on the Moga-Bhatinda highway, near Moga city, some youths in the bus began to harass the girl and passed lewd comments.
Her mother complained to the driver and conductor of the bus but they laughed it off and, in fact the bus conductor joined the youth in the act.
The mother them requested the driver to stop the bus but he ignored her plea and increase speed at which the girl and her mother panicked. Fearing a fate like that of Nirbhaya, jumped out of the bus and the girl died while the mother suffered severe injuries.
Police have arrested the driver and conductor of the bus.

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Indian women become cab drivers in Delhi to ensure safety of women commuters

#UberDelhi #rapecase #Nirbhaya Subsequent to the rape of a 26-year-old woman at the hands of a web-based Uber cab driver in Delhi, the women of Delhi have taken over driving cabs and thus ensure safety of women commuters.
The Delhi government has banned the Uber taxi service in the Indian capital after the incident and, it was revealed that the suspect driver had raped at least six other women in a similar fashion. The case of the driver on charges of assault, rape and kidnapping, has gone on trial at a fast-track court in the city.
But, the fear continue to stalk the women – it all began with the brutal gang rape and inhuman torture of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus that led to her death. Labelled as the Nirbhaya case, the authorities introduced laws but, that has not stopped the women from being targeted.
Therefore, women of Delhi have taken it upon themselves to learn driving and take on the role of cab drivers. They have got trained at the Sakha driving institute and run the cab service driven by women for women. Obviously, its popularity is growing.
These women drivers are imparted months of training on driving, self-defense, first aid and legal advice and the setup is run by Meenu Vadhera, an activist for over 20 decades. It is a part of her charity. The young women who she employs hail from the weaker and marginalized sections of society and many of them are survivors of violence or have seen violence from close quarters.

Sale of pepper spray doubles after the Uber cab rape incident

#Nirbhaya #pepperspray #ubercab It has been revealed by a firm that sells pepper sprays that the sale of this product was negligible till the Nirbhaya rape incident and, suddenly, the demand of this spray has increased. This is because it is a non-lethal weapon and an effective one.
As the owner of the outlet explained - whenever any case of crime against women makes the headlines, the sale of the pepper spray increases. He added that after the recent Uber cab incident, the average sale, which was earlier 7,500 cans a month, has doubled in NCR. Moreover, they get online queries for the product and many go in for online purchase.
This product is sold in 6,000 pharmaceutical shops in the city and only 3,500 are registered retail outlets which also sell pepper sprays. The number of customers who arrive to buy pepper spray at these shops has reportedly increased by 30%.
Bulk orders usually come from BPOs, the aviation sector, banks, sales-related offices, real estate firms and media houses in the NCR. The price usually varies from Rs 150 to Rs 500 in sizes varying from 10gm to 55gm.

Two years after Nirbhaya rape case in New Delhi, rapists still free

#nirbhaya Wake up Delhi and make the capital a safe place for women. It was two years earlier that a woman Nirbhaya was brutally raped in a moving bus in the city – the crime was committed inside the bus by a gang of men to satisfy their animal instincts. A decision had subsequently been taken that all rapists must be hanged but, even now, these rapists live – this reflects the difficulties that have to be surmounted to punish the scums of society.
The incident happened on Dec 16, 2012 when the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist boarded an unregistered bus with her male companion and was fatally gang raped – the case that led to nationwide protests and forced authorities to tighten laws on sex crimes.
The recent incident of Dec 5 of the alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman in Delhi by a taxi driver licensed by popular US online cab service #Uber is a clear indication that not much has been done by the law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem.
In a recent poll published by a leading news outlet. It has been revealed that 90 percent of 2,557 women surveyed did not see any improvements in safety while 86 percent of respondents avoided going out alone after dark.
Incidentally, in an October poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the city of Delhi was ranked as the fourth most dangerous city for a woman to take public transport and also the second-worst on safety at night and for verbal harassment on transportation.
Delhi is India’s capital and is headed for polls - there is fight between the BJP and the AAP as to who should rule and occupy the chair. Both sides would promise the people of Delhi the Moon but if the women feel unsafe in the capital, it spoils the image of the country as a whole. The leaders should remember that they are also fathers and have daughters, wives and women relatives - anyone of them could fall victim to the lust of men who seldom choose their victims by any criteria.