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An assault on tourism

Molestation cases could ruin India's 'Incredible' image

  • By Manik Mehta, Special to Weekend Review
  • Published: 00:00 April 30, 2010
  • Weekend Review

  • Image Credit: Supplied
  • India's campaign to woo tourists may fall flat if it cannot ensure safety of women visitors

India has a beautiful tourism promotion campaign. Diverse landscapes, attractive flora and fauna, and climatic variations along with a rich heritage of cultures, religions and cuisines, mixed with a sprinkling of mysticism characterise the stunning visual and sound effects of the Incredible India tourism promotion campaign that has won international acclaim.

But this beautiful face can become ugly and ruin the image of the destination if the incidents of rape and molestation of foreign female tourists in India continue to make media headlines.

When the then Indian tourism minister Ambika Soni was in Berlin to celebrate India's "partner country" participation in March 2007 at the International Tourism Bourse, the world's largest tourism fair, she spoke of the "divine treatment" given to guests — she used the Sanskrit phrase atithi devo bhava — in Indian culture. Indeed, India's tourism ministry officially unveiled the Atithi Devo Bhava campaign which purports to enlighten and sensitise Indian tour operators, hoteliers, airlines, government officials and other players of their responsibility towards tourists.

But the campaign seems to have a hollow ring. "Such [molestation and rape] incidents can destroy India's tourism business and make a mockery of the Incredible India campaigns that cost millions of Indian taxpayers' dollars," says one German tour operator who prefers to remain anonymous because of his "business interests" in India.

Worried that the rising number of rape and molestation cases could harm India's image as a safe destination, the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has made representations to the Indian government in the past to provide security and also put up guidelines for foreign tourists at airports, railway stations and bus terminals and, if needed, print advisories on boarding passes and railway tickets.

Subhash Goyal, IATO president, had urged tourists to hire guides from accredited groups and recommended issuing special travel guidelines for women travellers, asking them to refrain from befriending strangers.

It would be wrong to say that the Indian government has not done anything to stop this ugly phenomenon; indeed, India's tourism ministry has written to a number of state governments to provide extra protection for foreign tourists. The Uttar Pradesh government was urged, for example, to improve security for tourists, particularly near the Taj Mahal, a major attraction for foreigners. But this is not going to allay fears of foreign women tourists travelling alone, particularly backpackers, who are often perceived by Indian men as "easily available".

Going by official Indian statistics, it would seem that rape has become the fastest growing crime in India. The Home Ministry's National Crime Records Bureau released data in the past from which one could infer that an Indian woman is raped every half an hour. Indeed, since 1971, the year when the authorities began recording rape cases, there has been an increase of nearly 680 per cent.

The latest case of rape was reported on April 16, ironically, from the Buddhist holy site Bodh Gaya in Bihar, where a 25-year-old Japanese tourist was pulled out of an auto-rickshaw on her way to the Gaya railway station, and forcibly taken to an isolated place to be gang-raped, according to police superintendent Sushil Khopade. The victim, a Tokyo resident, was touring Buddhist sites in India — Bodh Gaya is revered by Buddhists in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand.

Prior to this, a series of high-profile sexual assaults on women, including the rape of a 9-year-old Russian girl in January in Goa, have earned India the notoriety of being one of the most unsafe destinations for women travellers.

But Goa's tourism minister Francisco Xavier Pacheco fiercely defended Goa as a "very safe destination" for both foreign and domestic tourists when I spoke to him in Singapore in October 2009. However, many Western bikini-clad women while sunbathing or swimming in Goa feel uncomfortable at the lust-filled eyes of men staring at them.

Devesh Chaturvedi, the additional director-general in the Indian Ministry of Tourism, when recently interviewed at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin, said reports about molestation of women were hyped by the media. "However, we on our part have a zero-tolerance policy towards the culprits of such crimes, and our courts pass swift decisions against the perpetrators. In Rajasthan, for example, the court delivered a conviction within a month. We are also setting up a tourist police force whose main task will be, among other things, to protect women tourists against molestation of any kind. This is happening in Goa," explained Chaturvedi.

Also at the ITB fair, visiting Rajasthan tourism minister Bina Kak told Weekend Review that tourism traffic to her state had not been affected by the "rare cases" of molestation of women. "We are, of course, taking maximum precautions and women feel comfortable in Rajasthan," she said.

But many Indian officials and politicians tend to blame the victims themselves for their mannerisms and dress code. They say that by becoming too friendly with their attackers or exposing parts of their bodies, they may be "arousing" their attackers' predatory instincts.

However, Indian activists such as Deepti Singh have criticised the Indian patriarchal society for its "victim-blaming mindset". They argue that the 9-year-old Russian girl in Goa was not wearing a bikini when she was distracted from her mother by an accomplice. Even full-covered women in purdah get raped, they counter.

India received weeks of intense negative coverage in the Indian and foreign media when Scarlet Keeling, a 15-year-old British girl, was raped and murdered while holidaying in Goa in February 2008. Her case provoked international outrage and continues to engage the CBI, India's chief investigating agency.

Not surprisingly, many Western countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and France frequently issue travel advisories to warn their female nationals about the possibility of physical harassment and molestation in tourism destinations such as Agra, Goa, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

India, despite its rich cultural heritage and other unique attractions, attracts a mere 5 million foreign tourists, compared with 45 million in China, 7 to 8 million in Singapore and 8 million in Spain. The most glaring contrast to India is China where women are not known to face "eve teasing", as it is known in Indian parlance, or other forms of sexual harassment that seem to proliferating in some Indian cities.

Many Western tourists say China treats foreigners with the "same affection as it treats its beloved panda which, despite its mischievous nature, must be tolerated and protected". If a woman tourist is comfortable and safe in a foreign destination, experts say, she will keep coming back in what can become a lifelong love affair with that country.

India needs to create its own form of "panda treatment" for foreign women travellers — and not just invent high-sounding slogans which are no substitute for action.

 

Manik Mehta is a commentator on Asian Affairs.

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