Images, above and below: TV screens regularly report rape of and sexual assault on tourist women. The courts report no trials or convictions.
Current Events
Already a Hell-Hole for Local Women, India is No Country for Foreign Women to Visit Either
MANIMUGDHA S. SHARMA
On January 7, 2013, Japanese actress Yu Asada took a cab from the International Airport in Delhi to her hotel in Mahipalpur. It was her maiden trip to India, and she had come to Delhi to meet the cast and crew of My Japanese Niece, a film by Manipuri director Mohen Naorem.
That taxi ride was the worst she had ever had.
"The cabbie charged me Rs 4,800 ($100+). When I told him I couldn't pay so
much, he talked about the recent gang rape in Delhi and insinuated that I
might meet the same fate. I was numb with fear," she said.
American Michelle Tanner (name changed) didn't have to part with her money when she came to
India on a backpacking trip in 2010, but she did become a victim of
sexual harassment.
"Someone pinched my bottom when I went to Chandni Chowk;
when I turned around to see who it was, I felt a hand grab my breast. I
felt so humiliated that I immediately returned to my hotel, shut myself
in my room, and broke down," she said.
Both Asada and Tanner did not approach cops.
Neither do the hordes of foreign
travellers who face sexual harassment in varying degrees in India. Their
reason is simple: when local women
with all their familiarity with the law and advantage of language have
such a tough time reporting a sexual offence or getting a police report lodged,
what chance do they have as foreigners?
British woman Kaya Enrich, 27, learnt this the hard way when she was molested by a plumber in Gujarat
in 2009 and decided to lodge a case. She was allegedly humiliated in a
metropolitan court in Ahmedabad.
"The questioning was aggressive, and it
seemed to be aimed at demeaning me as far as possible so as to weaken
the case. I was asked everything in Gujarati and told to answer in
Gujarati even though I had asked for an interpreter," she had said back
then.
At an even greater disadvantage are those women who don't
come from the English-speaking world and, therefore, do not dare move
an inch without help from their foreign offices. India doesn't have an
enviable reputation for dispensing quick justice; and tourists with
their tight itineraries don't want to go through the rigmarole of
procedure, never-ending investigations and sanity-defying questions that
promise very little comfort.
According to statistics shared by
the market research division of the country's ministry of tourism, 6.65 million
tourists came to India last year. Of them, roughly 40% (2.66 million)
were women. This figure is likely to go up with India setting a target
of increasing its share of arrivals from the current 0.6% to 1% by the
end of the 12th plan. This simply means more and more women will come to
India, either for work or pleasure, and quite likely, carry home sordid
tales of harassment: tales that would eventually find vent in blogs and
websites and reveal the true story of India.
Additional DCP Suman Nalwa,
who heads Delhi Police's special unit for women and children, said
foreigners in need of help are usually tended to. But what about those
who cannot speak English?
"They have to take help from their embassies.
But some of our police districts have moved a proposal to hire
interpreters from the School of Languages in JNU to help us cross the
language barrier, which is a major constraint. I hope that we will be
able to tend to foreigners better once we have the interpreters," she
said.
The country earned Rs 94,487 crore from tourism alone
last year -- a 21.8% growth as compared to the earnings in 2011. But this
achievement has been belittled by the findings of an HSBC expat survey that puts India at the bottom of the ladder among 30 countries in terms of overall experience of foreigners.
Yvonne Anwar (name changed), a Frenchwoman of Algerian descent working in an MNC in Gurgaon, said she feels uncomfortable going out at night, or in crowded places.
"Being a woman, and that too a foreigner, is difficult in India, isn't it?"
[Courtesy: Times of India. Edited for sikhchic.com]
January 20, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Raj (Canada), January 20, 2013, 4:22 PM.
That nation is bankrupt; socially, morally and intellectually.
2: H. Kaur (Canada), January 21, 2013, 5:12 AM.
A few years ago I watched the news about Kayla Eldridge's trial. It was shameful. She was a British intern, and a plumber came to her house to fix a shower and attacked her. In court, her female lawyer was even ridiculed as a woman by the plumber's lawyer and all the men in the court were making fun of these two women. The female lawyer even said she was going to sue the plumber's lawyer. Women's rights people in India were very upset. I admire Kayla Eldbridge for after this court session was over she said she would not stop fighting. Women of India, grab power. Do not let these low-life men intimidate you.
3: Humrahi (India), April 06, 2015, 5:05 AM.
Nothing positive to say about India. They are multiplying faster than dengue mosquitoes and no repellent is working on them. Indians have lost their conscience as human beings, and their self esteem, if they ever had one! To them saving the life of a stray animal is more important than the humans who are it's victims. When that is lost, all is lost!