Delhi most unsafe for women, finds UN survey

Agencies

New Delhi, 09 July 2010: If you are a woman living in the Capital and you are perpetually scared of being sexually harassed, you’re not alone. About 85 per cent of Delhi’s women feel the same way, this according to a survey conducted by the Delhi government along with the United Nations and Jagori, an NGO.

The survey was conducted on more than 5000 women in the Capital. According to the study three out of five women reported facing sexual harassment even during the day and 50 per cent of the women interviewed said they were harassed on public transport.

 

 

Pragati from Delhi says: "It happens in buses mostly. People make all possible efforts to brush by you. People stalk you at times."

Sweta says: "Even if you are going to roadside market, sexual harassment is something right there."

The study stated that one of the major reasons why Delhi’s women feel unsafe is because streets and bus stops are badly lit.

Kiran Walia, Women and Child Development Minister of Delhi says: "We are going to recommend installation of CCTVs to track it in the buses and we also want that sexual harassment should not be a bailable offence and stricter laws are being conceptualised even in the Parliament."

The solution says the Delhi government to have workshops to explain to the police, civic body officials as well as bus drivers and conductors.

That women don’t feel safe in the Capital is not new. But these shocking figures that have come about, ironically in a study commissioned by the Delhi government, only makes it worse.