My soul cries and feels helpless while talking about the breathtaking, & scary crimes prevailing in Delhi. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, Delhi holds the first rank among 19 tier-1 cities of India in terms of crimes against women.
Women's Safety in Delhi is an alarming topic! Our sisters, mothers and even 2-year-old girl isn't safe. Increasing rape, eve-teasing, digital penetration, acid attacks, molestation, harassment has shown a huge increase in the last 5 years.
According to the Thomson Reuters study, 'Delhi city in India was declared as the least safe city to dwell in for women.'
According to the latest survey conducted by the UN Women, 2019 - 'More than 95% of the women felt unsafe to roam freely in the private and even public places of Delhi.'
Let's discuss in-depth the prevailing conditions of Delhi.
How 'Night Walkers' in Delhi helps?
Midnight Delhi Walks - is a sort of community made to create awareness that women have the right to walk freely in Delhi and other cities on nights. No crimes can snatch a women's freedom.
The 'Blank Noise' founder named Jasmeen Patheja has conducted multiple walks on the streets of Delhi at the midnight. All of the motives behind this initiative is to change the terror story women hold in her mind of getting into a trap of crime like rapes while walking alone in the night streets of Delhi.
Is Delhi safe for women?
SAFETY ASPECT 1: Female Student Safety, Delhi
According to one of the studies by Girija Borker, 2017 - 'Almost 40 colleges of the Delhi university participated in the survey to analyze the fear of studying safely in Delhi and how this fear influences their preference of choosing the right college.' According to the results,
- Almost 67% of the female students avoid taking an outside college, campus area, and even hostels tour after 7 pm.
- Almost 72% of the female students think tons of times before exploring the Delhi unsafe areas.
- The majority of the women will end up choosing the safe route and safe environment college with a lower academic rank in comparison to the unsafe environment college with a higher academic rank.
- Almost 60 to 75% of the female students were willing to spend an extra 20,000/- yearly on traveling safely from home to college. This amount accounts for double times their tuition fee invested.
- More than 70% of the women were willing to wake up early and spent 40 minutes extra on traveling via safe routes.
- After the introduction of the Marshals in public buses, and free students fare, there has been a rise in several females opting for such options for traveling.
- For females traveling via Metro, more than 86% of the overall women prefer traveling in the women compartment.
SAFETY ASPECT 2: Increasing Crimes Against Women, Delhi
According to the Hindustan Times, the survey conducted by NCRB, 2020 revealed the following facts -
- There was a total of more than 3398 cases of women who faced abduction and kidnapping crimes in Delhi.
- There were 10 cases of cybercrimes in Delhi.
- A total of 5 murder cases along with rape were noted.
- There was 115 death due to to the dowry system.
- Delhi overall accounted for almost half of the total crime cases held across the nation i.e., by 48.7%.
- Almost 2311 cases of molestation were reported.
SAFETY ASPECT 3: Women Tourist Travellers Safety, Delhi
According to Businessline, TripAdvisor conducted a solo women traveler survey, 2013 on female solo travelers across Delhi city to explore the city, business, and official meetings. The results showed that -
- 84% of the women feel Delhi be the most unsafe city in India for solo traveling.
- 94% of the women feel unsafe while traveling alone in Delhi at least once in comparison to traveling solo internationally.
- ⅙th of the women revealed that the worry comes to their door while traveling solo to foreign countries, not in Delhi, India.
- Only 33% of women put self-defense items in their bags or safety while traveling solo to Delhi.
- 78% of the women while traveling solo would prefer staying on a women's floor or on a women hostel to ensure safety.
SAFETY ASPECT 4: Working Women Safety, Delhi
Almost 95% of Indian women work in the informal sector. According to Hindustan Times, a survey was conducted on female workplace safety, Delhi the results showed that-
- 43% of respondents felt safe at their workplaces.
- 45% worked with the fear of getting molested by their bosses or colleagues and felt least safe.
- The majority of women in Delhi felt that they had to compromise on the workplace by sexual intercourse or digital penetration to get promoted.
- Delhi holds second place in terms of workplace-related crimes I.e, 369 cases, 2014-2018. Uttar Pradesh holds first place in terms of workplace crimes at a rate of 29% (or 726 cases).
Delhi Robberies & Theft Cases
- Overall, the robbery cases were reduced by 20%. Adding to this fact, the total number of robberies in Delhi remained the highest all across India.
- In 2019, the number of robbery-related crimes in Delhi was 9.8%. In Maharashtra, the number was 6.3% and in India, it accounted for 2.3%.
- The total vehicle theft cases in 2018, Delhi accounted for 46,433 in number. In 2019, this number was 46,215. There was a dip of 0.46%.
- For every 100,000 population, the crimes were 1,233.6 in 2019.
- According to the National Crime Records Bureau, among the total of 290,000 crimes happening in Delhi, 82% of them accounted for theft cases which increased by 25.7% from 2018 to 2019.
Delhi Rape, Molestation, kidnapping & Murder Cases, 2019 - 2020 data
- Overall, the murder cases in Delhi rise by 1.5%. As per figures, the number is 521 from 513.
- In 2019, the rape cases took a peak by 3% in comparison to last years.
- On average, 24 rape cases/week were reported to the police of Delhi.
- In 2020 (1,699), total rape cases dropped by 21.63% in comparison to 2019 (2,168).
- Molestation cases dipped in 2020 to 2,186 cases as compared to 2,921 cases in 2019.
- The total kidnapping cases in 2020 stood at more than 2,938 as compared to 3,672 in 2019.
Steps Taken by Delhi Government for Women Safety
- Installation of more than 2 lakhs of CCTV cameras.
- More than 14,000 Marshals have been positioned in the cluster buses & DTC.
- 1 lakh plus devices are being worked upon, in the government project to ensure women's safety against crimes.
- Delhi buses will have inbuilt features of the global positioning system, CCTV cameras & panic buttons. Also, the commander center is built in Delhi for monitoring the same.
- Mandatory installation of GPS in all the cabs, buses, autorickshaws, and other vehicles for real-time location tracking in case of any crime.
- The dark spots in Delhi have been illuminated with the step of installing more than two lakh LED lights in the streets.
Safety for Women will always be a big QUESTION when it comes to Delhi City. Always know the pros and cons before shitting to Delhi. If you are all alone, then shifting & staying alone in a pg, hostel, separate flat won't be a good idea. Families staying together, having their vehicles are still safe as compared to those who travel by public transport. The figures discussed above are disheartening, so it's better to give a second thought to DELHI. Stay safe!
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