Author: Sadiya Rafa, Intern at Student of the BAR (October), Student of SDM Law College, Mangalore
Editor: Vidya Puthran @ Student of the BAR
Assistant Editor: Nishan N. @ Student of the BAR
"Athiti Devo Bhava"
Indian culture considers guests as someone equivalent to god. But does it apply to foreign tourists as well? Especially if they are women? Do you think foreigners are safe in India?
When a British teenager was found raped and murdered on a Goa beach, India received a lot of negative press. Harassment of foreign tourists takes place in all destinations even public places like metro. The main reason the foreign nationals are subjected to sexual harassment is because of the lame attitude that foreign women are easy. Many times tourist guides themselves become perpetrators.
With the increase in crimes against women in India, a sense of fear has been created among female tourists travelling to India. Unfortunate incidents like this changes the perception of the country. Besides, its no secret that foreign tourists are subjected to sexual harassment when they come to India. In fact countries like U.S. warns their citizens regarding these crimes and keep them alarmed. Crime against foreign women occurs even in other countries as well and not only in India.
India draws over 10 million tourists from different countries of different cultures, gender, backgrounds, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Amongst them, if one demographic is said to be targeted more, it definitely is female travelers. Foreign tourists in India sometimes are subjected to some unwanted male attention in the form of starring stalking, which sometimes turn violent and hostile.
Let’s look at some of the disturbing cases alleged by foreign tourists in India:
1. Danish woman who was robbed and gangraped in New Delhi:
A 52 year old Danish tourist was gang raped by nine men. She arrived India in January 2014. She had lost her way to the hotel and she seeks help from a group of men near Connaught place who took her to an isolated area and raped her instead of helping her. Five among the nine men were sentenced to life imprisonment and rest of the juvenile perpetrators were not identified by the victim.
2. Mahmood farooqui case:
A 35 year old American Fulbright scholar from Columbia University was raped by Mahmood Farooqui who is a writer, artist and co-director of the Oscar nominated film Peepli Live. The victim was in India for her doctoral research. Farooqui was sentenced 7 years of imprisonment by a trial court.
3. A German national was raped in a moving train in Chennai:
An 18 year old German girl was raped in Mangalore-Chennai Train and the same was reported to the Railway Police. The victim was enrolled as a volunteer at a German based NGO. The German national victim worked as a school teacher in Karnataka and taught English.
4. 19-year-old German woman allegedly raped in Delhi:
An unidentified auto driver raped a 19 year old German tourist in December 2015. This woman, just like the Danish women had lost her way and the auto rickshaw driver offered to help her but instead of helping her, he sexually assaulted her. The complaint was filed by the victim two and half months after the incident. The accused in this case has not been identified yet.
From the above cases one can definitely arrive at a conclusion, that Indian Government should bring about adequate measures to protect foreign guests. Especially female tourists who are subjected to the sexual harassment. Necessary protection should be given. Speedy trials of cases are necessary. Perpetrators should be strictly punished. Adequate measures should be taken to improvise safety in tourism and the government should make provisions for the foreign tourists to report any kind of crimes against them without any fear of prejudice. The cases mentioned here are very few among which have come to limelight, there are lot of cases which never known to third party at all.
Conclusion:
"Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape."
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