My friend who was visiting Delhi called me and said, “I’m in a bad place.” I asked her, “Which area?” She sighed, “No, Mentally.” That’s Delhi’s reputation when it comes to girls’ safety.
Delhi is usually safe for girls during the day, but they can feel extremely unsafe at night. NCRB statistics support this claim. Delhi police have also identified 2000 areas where most mishaps happen. Eve teasing, stalking, mobile and chain snatching, molestation, murder, and rape are some crimes against women you might hear about in Delhi.
Even though the entire city is under surveillance, surprisingly, posh areas like Saket in South Delhi are also on the list given by the Delhi Police.
The Reality of Women’s Safety in Delhi
1. Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau
Delhi has this image of being the most unsafe city for women because of high crime statistics.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau Report (NCRB) data of 2022, the highest number of crimes against women was reported in Delhi at 14,158 cases per one lakh of population, followed by Mumbai at 6176 cases.
Other major metropolitan cities like Bengaluru and Kolkata have reported 3924 and 1890 cases, respectively.
Several high-profile cases have been involved, such as the 2012 Nirbhaya tragedy and the Jessica Lal case. These cases received prolonged media coverage and sparked outrage.
This reinforced the perception of Delhi as unsafe and cast a lasting shadow over the city’s image.
Many people outside of Delhi NCR perceive that Gurgaon, Noida, and Ghaziabad are a part of Delhi because of the name ‘Delhi-NCR’. They even include the crimes of these cities with those of Delhi.
Gurgaon’s crime statistics are included under Haryana, while Noida and Ghaziabad statistics fall under Uttar Pradesh. Even the NCRB publishes the crime of Ghaziabad separately.
1063 cases per one lakh of population crime against women were registered in Ghaziabad in 2022 compared to 591 cases in 2021.
The NCRB 2022 report also showed that among all the IPC crimes against women in Delhi, per one lakh population, there were:
- 129 dowry deaths
- 43 cases of abetment to suicide
- 1 case of miscarriage
- 8 cases related to acid attack
Further, there have been:
- 4876 cases of cruelty by husband or his relatives
- 4015 cases of kidnapping and abduction
(Among these 4015 cases, 6 cases of kidnapping and abduction of girls below 18 years for marriage are there)
- 31 cases of human trafficking
- 1204 cases of rape (all cases of women above 18 years)
- 4 cases of attempt to commit rape
(3 cases of women above 18 years and 1 case of girls below 18 years)
- 2016 cases of assault on women with the intent to outrage her modesty
(all were cases of women above 18 years)
- 400 cases of insult to the modesty of women.
2. Daytime Safety Experiences
Many of my female friends have studied in Delhi and lived here for almost 20 years. Thankfully, I haven’t encountered many experiences where they told me they have felt unsafe.
During her school days, my sister took the bus to get to school. The driver was a known and trustworthy person who lived near our house.
The bus was usually crowded, and many people I knew from my area used to travel on the same bus. My sister has always felt safe on that bus.
Sometimes, when she missed the afternoon bus, she had to walk back home from school before taking an auto.
There were also many times when all the other people she used to travel with deboarded the school bus, and she was the only one left.
Our house was 500 metres from her bus stop, so she used to walk back alone. During those times, she never felt she was being followed or teased by anyone.
Also, the roads were crowded during those afternoons, and many people were on the streets. She also used to travel on DTC buses for her tuition classes and felt safe.
DTC buses during afternoons and late evenings (7-8 PM) are pretty crowded, and we can see a lot of women travelling at that time.
She has travelled a lot on the metro in the mornings and afternoons and has been on almost all the lines of the Delhi Metro.
Irrespective of the timing, she found a lot of other women travelling in common coaches, so her experience is not limited to women-only coaches.
Several CCTV cameras also cover the metro stations and the insides of the train, and she has always felt safe inside the premises.
3. Safety at Night
The Delhi police suggest that CCTV surveillance is essential in the city, and adequately illuminated roads can also help ensure women’s safety.
They say that dark stretches motivate criminals to commit crimes and run away, as it gives them confidence that nothing will be captured on CCTV.
An NGO called Safetipin surveyed most places in Delhi to assess how safe this city is for women.
The parameters were light, open, visible (eyes on the street), crowd, security (presence of police), path, transport, gender usage (number of women), and feeling (how safe the auditors felt).
Among these, four parameters had the lowest score: transport, gender usage, light, and security.
This means that transport connectivity isn’t that great in all areas of Delhi, the presence of women on roads is low, the street lights are faulty, and police aren’t everywhere.
You can check out my article on the Safest Areas of Delhi to find stretches you should stick to as a woman.
Dark Stretches in Delhi
The 2016 Safetipin report also identified 7,438 dark spots in Delhi. Lighting is one of the most critical factors that help increase women’s safety.
The survey also named some key areas in Delhi, namely Pandara Road, Man Singh Road, Bhishma Pitamah Marg, Moolchand Flyover, and Vasant Kunj Mehrauli Road, to be unsafe for women at night.
The Public Works Department accepted the suggestions given by this report and tried to illuminate the paths by installing 5,324 LED fittings.
The department also claimed it would install the remaining LED fittings whenever it got electricity from the discoms.
To add to this, the Delhi Police have also identified around 2000 dark stretches where most cases of molestation, rape, and snatchings happen.
These stretches mostly lead to the Indira Gandhi Airport, metro stations, railway stations, malls, and other posh localities. Twenty-five of these stretches lead to different metro stations and are hit worst by crime.
These are: ITO, Jama Masjid, Govindpuri, Dwarka Mor, Uttam Nagar, Janakpuri West, Janakpuri East, Tilak Nagar, Shadipur, Chandni Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Adarsh Nagar, Vishwavidyalaya, Jahangirpuri, Lajpat Nagar, South Extension, Saket, Vasant Vihar, Dhaula Kuan, Pragati Maidan, Bhairon Road, Sundar Nagar, Nizamuddin Road, Badarpur Border, and Barapullah Road.
Personal Experiences of Women
But even till 2023, a lot of stretches in Delhi were dark.
When the then Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief, Swati Maliwal, went out for a night inspection, she noticed that some bus stops, like Ramesh Park and Lalita Park, weren’t illuminated.
She also said that she has spoken to a lot of women, and they have complained that these areas have been in darkness for a very long time, and they feel unsafe here.
She also added that she will notify the Delhi government to ensure the bus stops have lights.
There have been times when one of my ex-girlfriends had to stay out till 9–10 pm. She returned home in autos and cabs and felt safe in them.
There was a night when she was forced to share an auto with two unknown men around 11:30 pm to her accommodation in Nirman Vihar because nothing else was available.
However, the auto driver was kind and asked them to let her sit comfortably first.
But I wouldn’t lie and tell you honestly that I was extremely worried about her safety and was on a call with her throughout her journey.
The roads in my area (Greater Kailash) are well-lit, and many people can be seen even after midnight. Based on the experiences of females close to me, I can say not all of Delhi is unsafe for women.
4. Government Surveillance Measures
The Delhi government has taken measures to strengthen women’s security.
Former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, mentioned in one of his tweets that Delhi has become the most surveilled city in India. Back in 2021, Delhi had 1826 cameras per square mile.
The Delhi government also deployed around 10,000 civil defence volunteers (CDVs) as bus marshals in 2015. However, the state revenue and finance department objected to this.
It said that CDVs can only be deployed during natural calamities. Since November 2023, no bus marshals have been in any DTC buses.
Protective Laws and Support System
The Department of Women and Child Development, Government of NCT of Delhi, is the nodal department responsible for implementing the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act 2005.
The department has appointed 18 protection officers who represent each district of Delhi; they receive the cases and process them according to the act’s provisions.
According to this act, any aggrieved woman can get a protection order, residence order, compensation order, maintenance order, custody, or any other order from the magistrate.
If the perpetrator doesn’t comply with these orders, they can be imprisoned for one year, or a fine of ₹20,000 can be imposed.
Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands from a female victim or her relatives would also be covered under the definition of domestic violence.
The central government introduced the Nirbhaya fund in 2013 after the horrific incident that happened with her.
The central government allocates a specific size of the budget every year to give to the states to fund different projects aimed at securing women.
Under the Nirbhaya fund, one-stop centres (OSCs) have also been set up that provide women who have been the victims of violence with different services like legal, medical, and psychosocial counselling and temporary shelters.
These centres have been set up in all districts of the country within a 2-kilometre radius of hospitals or medical centres.
According to a report by Press Information Bureau (PIB), the central government released ₹413.27 crore in 2021-22, and the Delhi government utilised ₹404.38 crore.
11 OSCs were set up in Delhi between 2018 and 2021. The government also has special helpline numbers, mainly for women and children.
The women’s helpline number is 1091, and the children’s helpline number is 1098. In addition, the general police and ambulance numbers are 100 and 102, respectively.