By Maria Caspani
LONDON (TrustLaw) – Britain’s foreign office updated its travel advice for women travelling to India on Tuesday, following the gang rape of a Swiss tourist last week.
Just hours after the update The Telegraph reported that a British woman had leapt from a hotel window near Agra’s Taj Mahal in the early hours of the morning, fearing she was about to be sexually assaulted by the manager. The 32-year-old woman from London injured her leg and is under police protection, the paper said.
In the Agra incident, The Telegraph said the hotel manager and a security guard were arrested on "eve-teasing" charges – an Indian term for sexual harassment. Both deny the charges.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) warned women on its website to use caution when travelling in India and said reported cases of sexual assaults against women and girls were on the rise.
“Recent sexual attacks against female visitors in tourist areas and cities show that foreign women are also at risk,” the ‘Crime’ section of the recommendations said.
“British women have been the victims of sexual assault in Goa, Delhi, Bangalore and Rajasthan … A Swiss national suffered a serious sexual attack in Madyha Pradesh on 16 March.”
Six men were arrested on Sunday in connection with the gang rape of the Swiss woman who was camping with her husband in an Indian forest in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
The assault on the 39-year-old tourist came three months after a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped and beaten in a moving bus and thrown bleeding on to the street in a case that sparked outrage in the country.
One woman is raped every 20 minutes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. But police estimate only four out of 10 rapes are reported, largely due to victims' fear of being shamed by their families and communities.
The FCO website advises women travelling in India to respect local dress codes and customs, and avoid travelling alone on public transport, or in taxis or auto-rickshaws, especially at night.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
