Are Delhi\'s Buses Safe For Women?

Manpreet Romana/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesA bus stop in Delhi.

If you're a woman, you're not safe on public buses in Delhi.

If you get raped, it's probably your fault.

That's what Delhi's public transport riders had to say Monday afternoon, when asked about yet-another heinous crime against a woman in north India â€" this time, it was a 23-year-old woman, who was riding a bus when she was gang-raped by four men on Sunday night.

The woman had boarded a chartered bus, one of the many private bus networks that ply Delhi, with a 28-year-old male friend in Munirka, a south Delhi neighborhood. While on the bus, she was raped by four men, accordi ng to the police. When the woman's friend tried to defend her, he was beaten with an iron rod. The two were than stripped of their clothing and thrown off the bus onto a national highway. The woman is now in critical condition, hospital officials said Monday.

“It's the girl's weakness in most cases,” said Ram Singh, a portly middle-aged man who was messily chewing tobacco while waiting at the Connaught Place bus stop in Delhi. “They become friends and then they fight. Sudden, unknown attacks are usually a minority of the cases. In most cases, it's the girl's fault,” he said.  His views were echoed by most other men waiting for the bus.

Another passenger at the crowded bus stop, Mohan Bharat, 60, a retired corporate employee, said he believed that the law is fundamentally weak in Delhi.

“Ten years ago, Delhi was worse then the smallest of cities,” he said. “This is a result of the impotence of the government. Everything is left loose in the na me of freedom.”

Chhaya Sharma, the deputy police commissioner for Delhi, emphasized at a news conference on Monday that the bus was not a regular public bus. Ms. Sharma said the victims got on the off-duty chartered bus when the driver called out to them, saying he could go to the Palam or Dwarka areas. In a rush to get home, the woman and her friend each paid the 10 rupee fare (20 U.S. cents) and boarded the bus.

A quarrel ensued between a few men who were already seated on the bus and the two new passengers, after which the young woman was raped and the man beaten up. The two were then “dumped” by Mahipalpur on National Highway 8, she said.

Ms. Sharma appealed to the public to help identify the bus using the CCTV footage the police have. “We are following up on the leads we have, and I would like to assure you that we are trying to crack this case as soon as possible.”

Delhi's public bus system is used by nearly 7 million people a day, according to government figures. As of 2010, about 50 percent of the buses were government run buses and 40 percent private buses.  While the breakdown between male and female passengers is not available, women are clearly a small minority. That's because buses, whether public or private, are not friendly to women, female riders say.

Remnants of a rusted sign asking passengers to reserve seats for women could be spotted on a public Delhi Transport Corporation bus that stopped in Connaught Place on Monday.

“Most of these signs are usually ripped off,” says Manju, 45, a female passenger who was getting off the green-line bus. “My daughter, who is in 11th grade, for the lack of anything else, takes the bus from our house to her school every day. Every day, I live in tension and anxiety until she gets home. ”

When girls are teased or groped on buses and they report it to their parents, their parents usually blame the girl by saying “she probably smiled or brought it upon herself,” said Ms. Manju, who declined to give her last name. Delhi needs to start running women-only buses to alleviate the problem, she said.

A few years ago, a Delhi-based nongovernment organization, Jagori, mapped the safety of women in public spaces in the city. In its survey, 80 percent of the 500 female respondents reported they had faced sexual harassment in buses and other public transport.

Many women in Delhi avoid the buses altogether. “Never. I've never traveled on buses,” said Smriti Sharma, 20, who was standing outside the Khan Market Metro station. “My friends who take the bus tell me that buses are usually not safe - they molest you, they grab you. Because the buses are always crowded, t here are always chances.”

In Mumbai, where she lived earlier, Ms. Sharma said she traveled by bus in the hours from 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., and it was “absolutely safe.”

She may have been the only woman on the bus, she said, but no one harassed her. “There were men, they were looking at me, but they wouldn't dare touch me,” she said. “Not even a comment.”

The Delhi Metro system, which has women-only compartments, is considered much safer for women. Stations are manned by India's Central Industrial Security Force, a national guard, and outfitted with CCTV security cameras, metal detectors, x-ray machines.

“You can't rape anybody in the Metro,” said Mohit Chowdhary, 21, who was standing with Ms. Sharma. “There are cameras everywhere,” he said, and women can hit an emergency button in compartments to call for help.

Ms. Sharma said that the lack of safety on buses is not due to women's behavior, demeanor or dress, or even the lack of women's-only buses. “It's the men here,” she said. “The problem is with the men here.”