This is absolutely horrific. I think female travelers are probably safe, but I have to admit that the other gang rape affected my passion for India...and now this. Ugh.

Travelers are rarely targeted, though this does remind me of dogster's story about Saint Scarlett, the adolescent traveller raped and left for dead on a beach near Goa. Of course, there are gang rapes of Indian women every day. Perhaps all of this publicity may make a difference - I hope so.

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How horrible. I've gotta say, there were nights we stayed in as there were no other woman on the streets. While I was with my husband, we were uncomfortable about it.

Sadly, this is nothing new. It's just getting more media attention. Poor women are particularly vulnerable.

Horrific indeed but sadly all too common in India and it has been going on for years. I watched a documentary recently that blamed the increase in such events on the barbaric practice of aborting female foetuses or killing female babies at birth which has caused a major imbalance in the sexual demographics of certain areas of the country - to put it bluntly, the point of the documentary was that there were just not enough women to go around in many areas.

Despite the media coverage of the outrage following these tragic events, because of the deeply ingrained attitudes of misogyny and the widespread corruption of the police, politicians and the judicial system, I doubt anything will change any time soon.

In answer to the point raised by the OP, How safe is it for single female travellers is anyone's guess.

We just returned from a 3 week trip to India with 21yo son, 17yo daughter and son's girlfriend ,who traveled with us also for the last 5 days . Since we traveled with 2 men, both of whom are tall and fit looking,and were always in crowded areas, not too late at night, I felt very safe. However, we were stared at all the time and my daughter and the girlfriend were particularly aware of it. The initial gang rape happened the night we got into India, and the papers then carried several pages of violence against women every day. This was truly horrific. Since we have left, the girlfriend has been working on a medical project in Delhi and has been living with 2 other women. Even when they were with a male employee of the guest house they were staying at, they were followed by a gang of men who only dispersed when the employee called the police. One of the young women had gone shopping alone earlier and had engaged a rickshaw driver ,who then took her down an alleyway and she had to hop out of the moving vehicle when he refused to stop. A colleague was traveling with 3 other women last winter and had more than 1 taxi driver stop in the middle of a trip and demand more money from them. She was also groped on more than 1 occasion.I would say this was more prevalent in the big cities,particularly Delhi. and in the northern area . i have traveled alone in the past to many places,including Sri Lanka and Kenya but I don't think that I would currently feel safe alone in India. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to travel with other women, you meet when staying at the guest houses or hiring a reputable care and driver. Hard to know the best course of action.

I hope they take care of this problem fairly soon.
this is a very serious issue. I would hope the police come down hard on these despicable criminals.

This phenomenon of driving around the city in a bus and drinking, partying etc appears to be a new thing--- never heard of something like this before. These are criminals breaking the law and creating mass hysteria.

In a country that has had a woman prime minister (Indira Gandhi), Chief minister of UP state(Mayawati), Gov Sarojini naidu, and many women in high administrative positions in government and industry and politics. Who would have thunk it.

I am always amazed when I see single women hitching a ride, traveling all over the world. Gutsy.

I'm a female and was harassed by an old Indian woman on the street when I was traveling there a few years ago. She came up to me while I was walking on a not too-crowded market street in Hyderabad and pinched my cheek and said something in her language and laughed hysterically. Maybe she was insane, but it unnerved me nevertheles.

Now I understand why the manager of our guest house in Delhi might have been so concerned when I decided to walk 3-4k on my own to Huyaman's tomb at sunset. She phoned me several times and ended up sending a bicycle rickshaw to pick me up. I had already found my own auto-rickshaw, but the bicycle rickshaw driver shadowed me per: the manager's instructions.

I must say, however, that we did feel completely safe everywhere. But these stories are making me think that maybe I shouldn't have gone off alone (even though I grew up in NYC and am pretty streetwise), and that it's probably way worse for younger women.

venturesome, Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Hey cross check. I am doing the trip in installments while I still remember the details . We had a lovely time!!