Is it dangerous to travel in India as a woman ?

The aim of this article is to write about my life in India as a western woman to deconstruct some common beliefs about this topic. I share my own story and experiences and am mindful that these will differ for each woman who has done the same or plans to in future.

In France, to tell your relatives, you are going to India in France is not something that is usually warmly welcomed and even less when you are a woman. Before my departure, I heard a lot of people saying "she's crazy", " she's taking risks". In our collective psyche, India is a dangerous country for women.

Personnally, I found the notion of it forbidding myself to visit this country I had been dreaming of, due to just my gender, to be gross shame. More than that, I believe it is not acting in favour of  equality between men and women to boycott a entire country because it is perceived as being too dangerous to visit as a woman. To me, this reasoning is the same as the idea which states we should not go anymore to Paris because the risks of  terrorist attacks are too high. It is destructive of freedom.

À Pushkar

India, a country so unfairly denigrated

Indeed it is true that India is a very patriarcal country where the role of woman, in most cases is to be in the kitchen (no matter the social background). But as a female foreigner who lives in India, one can have a normal existence without being reckless. Fortunately, sexual assaults are not part of the everyday life there. Nevertheless, western medias often tend to describe the country as the most dangerous for women, even going as far as to refer to it as "THE rape country"and therefore depicting Indian men as sexual predators. Those accusations have to be put  into perspective. According to me, India is criticized relentlessly by media while it is not always justified.

We have a look at the statistics :

In France, a woman is victim of rape every 7 minutes.

In the United States, a woman is victim of rape every 2 minutes

In India, a woman is victim of rape every 13 minutes.

It is then wrong to call India " THE rape country". It is important to note that these statistics should be viewed with a wider context. The numbers correspond to the complaints reported to the police but the denunciations in India are less spread than in France or in the United States for instance. This article emphasizes that the increase of sexual assaults in India over the years may actually be related to the rising number of complaints being filed rather than the raw number increasing. This might be good news as more and more victims nowadays demand court decisions.

Daily life in India as a young woman

I was then initially suspicious towards men when I first arrived in India. I also could could notice that all  western women change their own behaviour and appearance when travelling in India. Makeup remains in the closet and short  haircuts are common. They all try to be transparent and to fade into the background so as to not be disturbed. Of course, the Indian culture is very different, we do not wear the same clothes in India as in Europe. The Indian society is very conservative so to respect the culture you must wear long and loose clothes. But after having taken those precautions, normally I found everything to be fine.

Certainly, you must be ready for the insisting look of men but generally this is only curiosity. You must  bear in mind that India is not a very touristic country.White skinned people are pretty rare which can encourage people to stare at you.

The need for consent to take a picture  of someone in public almost does not exist in India. As a white tourist (whatever the gender), everyone will want a selfie with you. Sometimes and pretty often, some men will take a picture of you without your permission, do not hesitate to ask to delete it. But instead of blaming them directly, we can also question our behaviour as Westerners. Personnally, I think the Indian women are so pretty wearing sarees that I often want to take their picture to keep as a souvenir since I know I will not see this back to Europe. Similarly, it is pretty easy to take portraits of children especially outside Europe but we can wonder if we do not take advantage of their docility ( I include myself among these people)

You must also be ready to rub shoulders with many men. Most Indian women are housewives, they are thus much less visible than their husbands. The men are therefore the ones who occupy the public space. As a woman traveler, you mainly deal with men, as in the tourist sector, they are the majority. To be honest, in New Delhi, I felt like, the streets were only full of men and this was not a very a reassuring feeling. During my first weeks in India, I feared taking a rickshaw by myself as most drivers are men. I quickly did it though to be self-reliant and I never faced any problem, related to harassment or anything else.

If you want to travel as a woman on your own and you are very nervous about it, I would suggest to travel to the South which is a region less populated, more welcoming and more peaceful. 

Final thoughts

What I want to convey is that if you want to travel to India as a woman, do not prevent yourself from going because of few alarming articles. For us, Westerners, India is a complex country to approach, therefore journalists might sometimes jump to conclusions when they analyse events. If you are a bit cautious and aware of the problems you can encounter, then it will be alright. In the end, the problems, you can face in India as a solo female traveler can unfortunately occur anywhere. 

So if you would like to go to India, don't curb your dreams and go for it ! India has so much more to display than the often relayed stories of sexual assaults, from its rich culture to stunning landscapes, it is a country with many gems to discover.