Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Rape cases are making tourists wary of visiting India...

Dheeraj Dixit used to make $2 a day snapping photographs of the tourists milling around the Gateway of India, the imposing monument at the southern tip of Mumbai. But a recent series of well-publicized attacks on women in India, and the international outcry over them, have Mr Dixit worried.

"India's image is spoiled when incidents like this happen," Mr Dixit, 38, said ruefully while hustling for customers on a recent evening. "It's unfortunate, and it isn't good for business."

Visits to India by female tourists dropped 35 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. That three-month period came after the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi in December, which brought protesters to the streets and shined a spotlight on the harassment and intimidation women face every day in India.

 Although the per capita rate of rapes reported to the police in India is below that of many developed nations, some experts believe that many sexual attacks go unreported and that the actual number is far higher. The public outrage over the December attack led to the passage of a new sexual offense law in March that imposes stronger penalties for violence against women and criminalizes actions like stalking and voyeurism. Full story...

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  2. Swiss tourist, 39, 'attacked in front of husband by eight men armed with sticks'
  3. British tourist leaps from hotel window to escape sex attack in India...
  4. Sexual attacks impact India tourism business...
  5. 393 rapes in Delhi in past three months...
  6. Shocking statistics. Devastating stories. India's dirty national secret. 
  7. Rapes and attacks on foreigners discourage expats from going to India...
  8. India needs a sexual revolution...

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