Rape fears hampering ‘Incredible India’ push

Tourists photograph camels and their handlers at the camel fair grounds in the outskirts of Pushkar in Rajasthan. But with the recent reports of sexual assaults on foreign tourists and the still-simmering outrage over the brutal gang-rape in December of a New Delhi student, India finds itself in the international headlines for all the wrong reasons.

AFP/New Delhi

Danish tourist Judith Jensen has a long list of don’ts to help her feel safe during her holiday in India.

She won’t hail a taxi off the street, she won’t stay in an obscure hotel and she won’t go out after dark - all decisions made in response to the growing reporting of sexual crime in the country.

“I have read and heard so much about rape in India that now I feel this persistent sense of danger,” Jensen, 42, said as she walked through a popular market in downtown Delhi.

The tourism ministry’s ubiquitous Incredible India marketing campaign has helped raise the number of foreign visitors over the past decade to around 6.6mn a year - albeit still way behind the likes of China and Malaysia.

But that push is now hampered by a growing sense that India is simply not a safe destination, particularly for women.

The fatal gang-rape of a student in December shone a disturbing light on the level of sexual violence and a series of subsequent attacks on foreigners has added to the sense of unease.

A British holidaymaker in the northern city of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, suffered a leg injury when she jumped out of a hotel window before dawn yesterday.

Police said she feared a sex attack after two men tried to enter her room.

Last Friday a Swiss woman was gang-raped while on a cycling holiday in Madhya Pradesh. Her husband was tied up by the gang who are also accused of stealing a laptop, a mobile phone and Rs10,000 ($185).

On the same night a group of men in a city near Delhi briefly kidnapped an Indian male executive working for the French engineering giant Alstom.

Other incidents reported since the December gang-rape include that of a South Korean student who said she had been raped and drugged by the son of the owner of the hotel where she stayed during a holiday in January.

A Chinese woman working in Gurgaon, a town bordering the Indian capital, was also reportedly raped by an acquaintance last month.

Officials say there is no need for alarm, pointing out that foreigners are victims of crime the world over and the vast majority of visitors experience no safety problems.

But travel advice from a host of countries stresses the need for visitors to take care.

An advisory from the Swiss foreign ministry, issued before Friday’s attack, urged men and women visiting India to travel in large groups and with guides.

The US State Department’s website asks female travellers to “observe stringent security precautions” and “avoid travelling alone in hired taxis, especially at night.”

Britain’s foreign office updated its advisory for India yesterday, warning female tourists to “exercise caution when travelling in India even if they are travelling in a group.”

In a notorious case five years ago, 15-year-old British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling was raped and left to die on a beach in the tourist resort of Goa.

Jensen, who stands out in an Indian crowd with her blonde hair, recalled how she spent a carefree week backpacking around southern India a decade ago.

But now, travelling with her 10-year-old daughter, it is a different story and her husband texts her several times a day to check on their safety.

“There is no question that these stories will have an impact on foreign visitors,” she said.

“Women will prefer to visit other places like Singapore or Bali or Thailand, where safety is not such a big concern.”

At the Delhi office of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, executive director Gour Kanjilal said it was unfair to portray India as dangerous.

“Our industry is the first casualty when crime against foreigners is reported in India, but the reporting does not always reflect the truth,” he said.

“Tourists should be responsible. They should follow some do’s and don’ts.”

A minister in Madhya Pradesh, where the attacks on the Swiss and South Korean tourists took place, told reporters on Sunday that travellers must inform local police officials whenever they move from one town to the next.

Lok Sabha approves tough laws

The Lok Sabha yesterday approved a bill toughening punishments for rapists and other sexual offenders that was introduced following the fatal gang-rape of a student that sparked national outrage. Members of the decision-making lower house of parliament gave their assent, following a seven-hour debate, to the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill which also contains new penalties for stalking, groping, voyeurism and acid attacks. The legislation, which must now be approved by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, provides for a minimum 20-year prison sentence for gang-rape that can be extended to life in jail. It also provides for the death sentence if a rape victim dies or is left in a vegetative state. “This is just a first step in a journey of 1,000 miles,” said Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a fiery woman MP from the regional Shiromani Akali Dal party, in the final moments of the debate.

Briton jumps out of hotel room to escape sex attack

A female British tourist suffered leg injuries after she jumped out of a hotel window yesterday over fears of a sex attack in Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, police said. The victim, who was not named but was in her early 30s, was admitted to hospital by police after she leapt from the first floor when two men tried to enter her room in the Hotel Agra Mahal at around 4am. She “got frightened so she ran to the other end of the room and jumped out of the window,” Pawan Kumar, superintendent of police in Agra, said. Another officer who took the victim to hospital said she had earlier rejected the hotel manager’s persistent overtures offering a massage. He then returned with a second man and attempted to open the door to her room with a key, said the deputy superintendent of police. He said the manager had been arrested on charges of harassment and would be produced in court shortly. The victim, a dentist from London, had suffered ligament damage in one leg but her injuries were not serious, he said. A member of staff at the hotel, who would not give his full name, said the manager had merely tried to wake the victim in time for an early morning train. “We don’t know what she thought but she jumped out of the window of her room,” said the staff member.