Delhi is incredibly unsafe for women. Yet, women are not going to remain in their homes in eternal fear. In order to square that circle, people who live in the capital have built a small list of rules that women follow to try and stay safe. Except none of it works.

The truly terrifying thing about incidents like the Uber case or the December 16 gangrape-murder from two years ago was that the women in both cases were following most of those rules. And yet they still ended up being victims of heinous crimes.

In a couple of days, questions will begin to be asked about the conduct of the woman in the taxi case. Whether it’s someone like Asaram Bapu insisting that the gangrape victim should have called her rapists “bhaiya” to get them to stop or others saying she shouldn’t have dozed off in the car (according to police reports), there will be discussions about how this ended up happening.


The problem is, there are very few guidelines to guard against rape that actually seem effective. That may sound like unnecessary panic, but in a society where almost all women can expect to experience some sort of harassment, whether it is gawking, groping or worse, it’s comforting to imagine that following safety rules will shield you from rape.

Here are a few of those guidelines:

*Don’t go out late

There was a time when midnight seemed like the cut-off, or maybe 11 pm. The Delhi 16 gangrape-murder began after the couple boarded a bus a little after 9.30 pm. The Uber incident too saw the woman take the cab around 9.30 pm. But even sunlight does not protect you here. Earlier this year, a Danish tourist was allegedly gangraped in the afternoon not far from Connaught Place, which also belies any admonition to stay in well-lit, well-populated areas.

*Don’t go out alone

Again, the December 16 incident shattered this one, because the woman in that case had a male friend accompany her. Despite this, the culprits in that crime were able to easily overpower the man and beat him up.

*Don’t wear short clothes or attract attention

 

Enough people have pointed out how rape tends to be an act of power and control, not sex. It is a crime of violence not one of passion, and so it does not matter what a woman is wearing. A reminder of this came when women of Twitter decided to describe what they had on when they were sexually assaulted, offering up everything from sweatshirts and baggy jeans to work clothes.

*Call the authorities immediately

Leaving aside everything else that has been brought up about the Rohtak sisters, who were filmed beating up men who allegedly harassed them, one part of their story was telling. While on a moving bus, with witnesses around, the girls called the police helpline to report “eve-teasing”. According to reports, they failed to get any response initially, and then a helpline attendant said they would be called back but nothing happened. The girls themselves went to the police station afterwards to register a complaint.

*Don’t worry about spending on a cab

 

We have cordoned off public transport for being too unsafe. No taking autorickshaws or buses, because there you are simply asking for it. The metro is safer than most other options, thanks in part to a policed women’s coach, but you still have to go to and get from the stations and it is only open till about 11.30 pm. So we settled on private taxis, particularly foreign-funded, slick app-based ones, as being a safe way of getting home. Now that too has become suspect.

*Don’t go out at all

This is what it seems to come down to, telling women not to step out of the house at all. But of course, there is another problem with that: more than 60% of the cases of rape, molestation and sexual harassment in Delhi through September in this year alone took place inside the house with the attacker being known to the victims.