Are thse articles exaggerating or should you be wary in India,
especially single females?

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NEW DELHI : Foreign women in Delhi face worse harassment than their
native counterparts, especially because they stand out in a crowd.

Staring, catcalling, unwanted touching and even outright
propositioning are some of the actions that these women living in or
visiting the city experience.

An American student, Torea Frey, described an encounter with an auto
driver that made her think twice about how she behaved towards male
friends in public.

After parting ways with one such friend at CP, she hailed an auto that
was waiting nearby. The driver dropped her at her destination. But,
not before mouthing the word "sex" and indicating that she should
write her name and phone number for him.

"My co-workers told me that he might have thought I was a Russian
tourist who had run out of money and needed to sleep with people to
pay my way back. He was very insistent on getting to know me better,"
Frey said.

Many foreign women observe that men are overly friendly towards them.
But harassment by auto drivers or on a public transport is most
threatening because there is no possibility to walk away or duck into
a shop.

Not only do women from the US and Europe stand out, they also suffer
from the negative impact of pop culture images of white women as sex
symbols.

At a screening of Love Actually that Frey attended at a Delhi cinema
house, viewers laughed in appreciation of the American characters in
the movie: Women who slept around.

Later, when she was standing outside the theatre, someone grabbed her
posterior, though she hesitated to connect the incident with the
movie's portrayal of American women as "loose". "I just hate going out
in crowds now," she said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...how/450730.cms

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One more black spot. The murder of Australian tourist Dawn Emelie
Griggs on Wednesday has — once again — brought back into the limelight
the increasing incidence of crime against foreign tourists, specially
women and backpackers.

Kristy Spark and Judy Sands are from Brisbane , like Griggs. And they
are on their guard. ‘‘We are wary about travelling in Delhi . This is
no place for single women,'' says Judy, ‘‘One is harassed everywhere,
people try to touch you, mutter obscenities. We interact with the
locals everywhere in India . But not in Delhi .''

And not without reason. Here's the reality of the past few months.
Japanese tourist Mai Kusama was cheated of $ 200 and illegally
confined in a Lajpat Nagar house. A Fijian was raped in a car in
Safdarjung Enclave. A Swiss diplomat was raped just outside Siri Fort
auditorium. A Kenyan student at DU was assaulted by an Indian
classmate. And these cases are just a pointer to the never-reported
harassment which foreign tourists undergo in Delhi .

Celso Carvajal of Greece recounts his own tale of horror: ‘‘Just as I
had booked a taxi at the railway station, a rude man pushed my wife
towards his own taxi. We somehow got away from that place.'' Continues
Celso's wife Minna Niemei: ‘‘The way women are harassed here is really
sad. People here try to get whatever they can from foreigners. If they
can't, they turn aggressive. Why can't Delhi have a dedicated police
force for tourists?'' DCP (traffic) MK Meena seemingly has no answer
to this question. Nonetheless, he maintains that ‘‘the computerised
pre-paid taxi booth operated by the traffic police keeps track of
things.''

That's the official version. Unofficially, Polish tourist Diana has
been in Delhi for just a day but has already been eve-teased 5-6
times. ‘‘I'm afraid of even walking down the street.'' Paul Hill of
Australia is categorical that there is absolutely no help for tourists
in Delhi . ‘‘I was forced to pay Rs 200 for just 4 km by taxi. There
are touts all around who try to fleece you. Wednesday's incident shows
that things turn bloody.'' Tim Schoerm Akers of Holland is appalled by
his experiences at a Paharganj hotel. ‘‘While walking on the street,
people try to sell drugs to you. Somebody tried to snatch my bag.''

Sordid pictures which say a thousand words about Delhi . But this
doesn't unnerve the cops. ‘‘A single murder doesn't prove that Delhi
is unsafe for tourists. It was an unfortunate incident but the
assailant has been arrested,'' says joint CP (crime against women)
Vimla Mehra, ‘‘ Delhi is, by and large, a safe city.'' What can change
this ‘fact', however, is the version presented by Britisher Gerald
Harmer. ‘‘While shopping at Palika Bazaar, I was chased all over the
market by a shopkeeper. The cop sitting there didn't bother to help.''

These are the impressions that the tourists take back home with them.
And that's a sorry picture of India Shining.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...how/570921.cms

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Sylvi and Beat Ladier have been religiously coming to India for the
past 25 years but they are liking it less and less, and the brutal
murder of an Australian woman tourist has only made matters worse.

"India needs a revolution like the French. The country is losing out
on its soul, with all these technology influx and McDonald's,"
remarked Beat Ladier, a Parisian in his early 60s.

Speaking to IANS outside the bustling New Delhi railway station,
Ladier, who wore an orange hand-printed kurta and faded blue jeans,
said Wednesday's killing of Dawn Emilie Griggs here symbolised what
was wrong with India.

"We've been coming to India for 25 years - it's become a part of our
souls - but honestly we are liking it less and less every year," he
added, as Sylvi nodded.

Half a dozen other foreigners who spoke to IANS in the capital spoke
on similar lines, lamenting the deteriorating law and order in major
cities and the way men looked at women, particularly the tourists.

"I start getting scared as soon as some unknown person accosts me. It
might be an ordinary travel agent. But the way they mob you, I just
cannot trust anyone," complained Isabel Farrel, who is from London.

Like so many tourists, she had always thought that the "pre-paid"
taxis one hires from railway stations and airports here were safe -
until she read about the cold-blooded murder of the 59-year-old
Griggs.

Griggs met a terrible end in the early morning March 17 when the
driver of a taxi she had hired from the international airport drover
her to a desolate spot and murdered her - apparently after failing to
rape her.

Her body, with a brutally disfigured face, was discovered the next
day.

Although the police quickly tracked down the killer driver, the
incident shocked both Indians and foreigners.

"We always assumed that the drivers of pre-paid taxis were always kept
under surveillance by the taxi stand. Else we would have thought twice
before taking these," said Farrel, who has spent three weeks in New
Delhi and Punjab.

But Farrel has no problems travelling in India - because she is with
Indian friends. But not everyone is that lucky.

Asked if she would travel in an Indian taxi again, Rebecca Waite, who
is from California and is doing an internship in Delhi for six months,
replied: "After this incident, I will restrict myself to an
auto-rickshaw. At least, it'll be easier for me to jump out."

The American woman was as bitter as the Ladiers about what she felt
were the falling standards of Indian society. She said: "We had always
associated India with non-violence and (Mahatma) Gandhi but we come to
India and see none of it."

Waite admitted that Giggs' murder - coming on top of the rape of a
Fijian woman and a Swiss diplomat - was worrying her.

Several tourists said they came to India looking for spiritual
guidance. But many of them return home terribly disappointed, after
spending days and weeks in the country battling people and problems
they were not prepared for.

Beggars stalk them on the streets; traders and their agents harangue
them with sub-standard items; they are overcharged in shops, and very
often auto-rickshaw drivers take them to unknown locations and then
blackmail them for money.

To add to their troubles, fair-skinned women say they get harassed
sexually.

Tracey Woodard, another young American, had a litany of complaints.

"Every day on the streets we go expecting the worst. We are stared at.
As we walk down the streets the men pass lewd comments and they very
often try to grab us.

"The only thing that stops me from staying on in India is the way men
treat women. No freedom for women here. Otherwise, India is so
beautifully alive with so much of energy and vibrancy."

"The reason why we foreigners tend to get targeted is mostly because
of the influx of adult movies," reasoned Sylvi Ladier. "Indian men
think that all white women are of loose character.

"Women as a whole are subjected to injustice in India. All the women
of India should stand up and resist it. Our women did it in the
17th-century. That is why we are liberated today. It is still not too
late."

Added her husband Beat: "A lot of blame is also to be laid on the
Indian social system. Here the men are taught to keep pushing till
they get what they want. Also, Indians are not religious at all. If
they only followed the Vedas none of these things would happen."

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/...ts=1&id=711 8