[Although the per capita
rate of rapes reported to the police in India is below that of many developed
nations, some experts believe that many sexual attacks go unreported and that
the actual number is far higher. The public outrage over the December attack
led to the passage of a new sexual offense law in March that imposes stronger
penalties for violence against women and criminalizes actions like stalking and
voyeurism.]
By Neha Thirani Bagri and Heather Timmons
MUMBAI, India — Dheeraj
Dixit used to make $2 a day snapping photographs of the tourists milling around
the Gateway of India, the imposing
monument at the southern tip of Mumbai. But a recent series of well-publicized
attacks on women in India, and the international outcry over them, have Mr.
Dixit worried.
“India’s image is
spoiled when incidents like this happen,” Mr. Dixit, 38, said ruefully while
hustling for customers on a recent evening. “It’s unfortunate, and it isn’t
good for business.”
Visits to India by
female tourists dropped 35 percent in the first three months of this year
compared with the same period last year, according to the Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry of India. That three-month period came after the fatal
gang rape of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi in December, which brought
protesters to the streets and shined a spotlight on the harassment and
intimidation women face every day in India.
Although the per capita
rate of rapes reported to the police in India is below that of many developed
nations, some experts believe that many sexual attacks go unreported and that
the actual number is far higher. The public outrage over the December attack
led to the passage of a new sexual offense law in March that imposes stronger
penalties for violence against women and criminalizes actions like stalking and
voyeurism.
But attacks on women
have continued with an alarming regularity. While Indian women are most often
the targets, foreign tourists have been victims as well. A 30-year-old American
woman reported being gang-raped in a northern resort town last week. She picked
three men out of a lineup, and on Friday the accused were presented before a
magistrate and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
On March 15, a group of
men raped a 39-year-old Swiss tourist in Madhya Pradesh and attacked her
husband. Four days later, a 25-year-old British tourist jumped off the balcony
of her hotel room in Agra, fearing that the hotel owner was planning to
sexually assault her.
“With the most recent
gang rape in Delhi on the forefront of my mind, I travel to India with more
anxiety than I’m used to when traveling to a foreign country,” said Corinne
Aparis, 24, of San Francisco, who is currently in the western Indian city of
Udaipur as an international program coordinator with the Foundation for
Sustainable Development. “It scares me to think that there’s that type of deep
hatred toward women — that just being a woman is enough of a target and reason
for some men to inflict such violence on me.”
India can ill afford to
lose the foreign currency that tourists inject into the economy. Economic growth
has slipped to 5 percent in 2012 from more than 9 percent annually in 2010, and
the government needs foreign currency to offset huge payments for imported oil
and coal, which cannot be paid in rupees.
A total of 6.4 million
foreign tourists traveled to India last year, a smaller number than in some
much smaller countries, like France, or even in cities like New York. But such
visitors make an essential contribution to the country’s flagging economy, and
are vital to the survival of millions of one-man operators like Mr. Dixit.
Tourism over all
accounts for 6 percent of India’s gross domestic product and is responsible for
about 10 percent of organized employment in the country, or some 20 million
jobs. An estimated 60 million to 70 million more people, like Mr. Dixit, make
their living off foreigners in an “unorganized” way. Foreign tourism
specifically contributes about $18 billion, or approximately 20 percent of
India’s current account deficit, according to official figures.
Mr. Dixit is not alone
in his worries about India’s image among women. The Indian government and the
tourism industry are scrambling to reassure would-be visitors. Indian states
are forming tourism police forces, hotels have created exclusive areas for
women only, and tour groups are adding features like women’s-only tours and
cellphones for all customers.
For some foreign
tourists, the increased fears mean extra precautions.
“When I said I was
traveling to India, my friends and family asked me to be careful and were more
worried about me than if I was traveling to any other foreign country,” said
Nadine Herwiejer, 26, while sitting in the shade of a tree at the Gateway of
India.
Ms. Herwiejer, from
Foorburg in the Netherlands, said that she was “traveling in a group and would
not feel comfortable traveling alone in India because of safety reasons.”
In April, the Tourism
Ministry asked all state governments to create police forces just for tourist
spots. Such forces are already present in the states of Goa, Rajasthan, and
Jammu and Kashmir, where they wear special armbands to identify themselves.
The Tourism Ministry is
also setting up a multilingual toll-free help line that will be answered by
women and act as a concierge service, but will also provide telephone numbers
for all the police stations in India, officials said.
Thomas Cook India has
started exclusive tours for women and offers additional services, like free
cellphones along with emergency contact numbers for police stations, hospitals
and help-line numbers. The Imperial, a luxury hotel in New Delhi, has created a
“single lady corridor” of 12 rooms, each with a security camera on the door,
staffed by an all-female staff. Even the airport pickup contact is a woman.
Along with improving
security, though, tourism industry officials say that India also needs to
carefully rebuild its image.
“We need to tell the
world that Indian cities are as safe or unsafe as any other metropolitan
cities,” said Arun Varma, the chief executive at Prime Travels, a tour
operator.
