How dangerous is India for solo women travellers, or female-only groups?

Over the last few years I have traveled alone in touristed areas of Delhi, Kerala & Rajasthan. I am a 29 year old Caucasian woman. I have travelled alone extensively in Europe, North & Central America. I never felt unsafe, but I followed some basic rules.

Activities:
I did not go out alone at night. I mostly didn’t go out at night except in the absolutely most heavily touristed, backpacking westernized towns(Varkala, Jaisalmer). I took cabs & rickshaws alone, but avoided any that solicited me or where the driver had a buddy. On the bus or trains I would get asked many questions by the locals but no one was rude or unfriendly. Occasionally walking around I would get approached with ‘do you have a boyfriend/husband? Do you want one?’ type things, but it wasn’t too bad. I have had similar experiences in Europe or USA although rarer. I felt safe walking around in the day, and on the long distance buses. I did not take the local buses. I didn’t feel as safe in Delhi or Jaipur as I did in the smaller towns or cities.

Dress:
I dressed conservatively for me: nothing tight or short. Nothing shorter than mid-shin, nothing showing the chest. I bought a couple of local scarves as soon as I could and wore those – fun shopping + a quick way to look more locally appropriate.

I went swimming in a normal one-piece suit in Varkala (very heavily Westernized) but covered up when I got back to my towel. There were people on the beach making sure no Indian men ogled the women too much.

There were many other travellers doing the same thing – more in Kerala than in the north, but in general it did not seem overly dangerous. You might get scammed, hard-sold, or something similar, but physical danger can be generally avoided.

Few points:

• While on the road, try to dress like Indian women. No, this does not mean that you have to wear a saree or a veil. Get a loose Kurta-Salwar (a long tunic that covers below the hips) stitched with a proper Duppata (shawl.) Use the Duppatta to cover your head, back and chest. Your attire should draw less attention towards yourself.

Kurta-Salwar:

Duppata:

A few days back, in a metro, I saw a western girl wearing a very transparent T-shirt. I could clearly see her black bra!
Please remember that though India is a democratic country, showing off your skin (purposefully) and then complaining of eve teasing does not make sense here.
No, wearing low waist jeans which shows your lower back somewhat is NOT normal here. Cleavage showing is an absolute NO.

• If you have somewhat long hair, try to braid it. That’s what traditional women do here.

• If male strangers try to talk to you like – “How are you doing?”, “You are from which country?” etc.- do NOT respond, just give them a frown and look away. It is NOT normal for Indian women to respond to useless queries from male strangers.

• When in a shared auto, do NOT sit with the driver. Indian girls usually avoid going in shared autos until they get a proper back seat. Sitting with the driver in a shared auto is a complete NO.

India does have a well-documented problem with sexual assault and harrasment directed at women. So I start off with the basics:

• Try to avoid walking on streets that are not well-lit. This can be more of a problem than you think because the infrastructure in sections of big cities and / or smaller towns can be bad.
• Know the emergency numbers. Police can be reached on ‘100’ nationally (and they can also contact ambulance services if needed); additionally, most mobile networks will also automatically forward calls to ‘112’ (the international GSM emergency number) or ‘911’ to the right number.
• There are specialised hotlines for women to seek help in non-emergency situations. While this is not yet national (but there are plans to expand it), Delhi Police for instance has a special hotline staffed by female police staff on ‘1091’. Other women help hotlines in India for a variety of situations is listed here.
• When travelling by public transport such as trains, buses, metro et al, try to choose coaches / seats reserved for women. Groping or sexual harrasment can somtimes be a problem. The advised strategy is to raise an alarm if this does happen. Most buses have reserved seating for women and women-only coaches can be seen commonly on many trains too. (We had a question earlier on Travel.SE on female travellers on Indian trains.)
• Be careful about drink spiking incidents, since that’s common in some places, especially Goa. I feel on this particular count, India is quite like Thailand as that’s another place you have to be really careful to ensure your drinks are not spiked, especially at beach parties. Use your caution and try to get drinks directly from a bartender, don’t let your drink out of sight, don’t let strangers buy you drinks – standard, common-sense precautions.

There is a perception that foreign female travellers have ‘loose morals’, a weirdly Indian term which I think shows contrasting attitudes towards casual sex in Indian culture traditionally (sex before marriage is still taboo in the eyes of many people; most marriages still happen to be ‘arranged‘) versus “the West”. This might result in unwanted attention leading to sexual harassment. Now, there’s obviously no ‘right answer’ to how to handle this but explicitly asking someone to back off works in most cases of harassment.

For more serious cases which you think might lead to sexual assault, if you’re travelling solo or in a small group then then you may want to consider carrying some means of legal self-defense such as pepper spray. (I remember reading the newspapers there that this was apparently outlawed at some point, but it no longer is. Sorry, I can’t find a citation for this.)

At the same time, it’s also important – I feel – not to get over-paranoid. Indians (Asians in general?) have a widely different concept of personal space compared to most other cultures – both in physical proximity and in how inquisitive people can be about your life. Try not to be creeped out when complete strangers ask you about your personal life, it’s what goes for small-talk in India (instead of, say, the weather).

Another thing that you might find while travelling in India, which I hear very commonly from many travellers – but which might seem threatening to female travellers – is that complete strangers may want to get pictures taken with you. You’ll find this happening more the smaller towns you go into, but even in big cities as a lot of population in these in the recent decades have been migrants from smaller cities / villages. Many of them have hardly interacted with foreigners – or may be meeting one for the first time – and coupled with differing sense of space / inquisitiveness, it’s very likely that you’ll attract a lot of attention when travelling.

TL;DR: You will attract a lot of attention as a foreign traveller – female or regardless. Be prepared for this, don’t let it make you paranoid. At the same time, be situationally-aware and if you feel things get out of hand, ask people to back off explicity and / or seek help from emergency services.