Foreign tourists feel unsafe,
India yet to shine for them
Navta Vij
New Delhi
A graffiti in Kolkata lampoons the NDA's India Shining campaign.
(Reuters)
It seems that the ruling NDA Govt's slogan for elections -
India Shining - is as far away from the truth as possible.
If like me you carry the "foreigner" tag, then it
is almost tottering on the brink of impossible.
The recent spate of violent incidents against foreign nationals
in India has pegged the safety for foreigners in India - especially
New Delhi - at a seemingly all time low. If the usual antics
of the locals when they set eyes on tourists - taxi prices
rise by three times the normal rate and bus journeys become
a mad, gawping frenzy - were not enough to add to a tourists'
woes, murder is the latest, and chilling, addition.
Recently the murder of Australian tourist Dawn Emilie Griggs,
strangled by the driver of a taxi she hired from the IGI airport,
made the headlines. Prior to that the rape of a Fijian woman
and also a Swiss diplomat were widely reported in the press.
In the case of the Swiss diplomat, there has been little headway
since the incident took place in October 2003. The assailant
is still at large. In a country that is home to at least 300,000
tourists, the above incidents show why there are so few who
put their faith in the presumably powerful security set up.
Janpath, Delhi's fashion street, is one of the most popular
tourist spots. Talk to foreign tourists there and the consensus
is that safety is only guaranteed if they stroll around in
extremely large numbers which is difficult for those who have
flown in as pairs. Are they aware of national help line numbers
to call should they need help? What help line numbers, they
counter question.
Liz McClure, an Australian tourist backpacking around India
with her husband, says: "I don't know of any national
help line numbers." Not even the numbers police claim
to have spent months (some say years) advertising in the quest
to make India feel safer? "No. I didn't know but it makes
no difference. I wouldn't try."
According to the Delhi Police Headquarters' official enquiry
line, there are three main help line numbers available to
call if someone is in difficulty: The first is the official
enquiry line, the second for women and the third for students
and elder citizens. But there is no separate line for foreigners
and, according to the British Embassy, no plans to invest
in one that concentrates on breaking down the complicated
language barriers.
Dial 1091, the women's help line, and the call operator claims
the response rate to any call is seven minutes. For a foreigner
like myself, from the UK and with a slightly different dialect,
it takes Laxmi - an operator who answers my call most unwillingly
and has difficulty in speaking basic English - half an hour
to locate someone who can understand and respond to my needs
adequately. Had this been a real case, surely the hapless
victim on the other end would have died of frustration before
falling prey to anything else.
When the flaws were pointed out to Joint Commissioner of
Police, New Delhi range, Maxwell Pereira, his response was
quite the contrary. He says: "All members of staff employed
by our police force are English speaking graduates. It is
something we make sure of." Why then does it take half
an hour to respond to a basic call? That sets him off: "It
is not our responsibility to look after every foreigner who
enters this country." So whose is it? "Your embassies.
Why don't you ask them why they don't do more to raise your
knowledge of this country rather than leave it to us."
To a query that if there are lapses like this, in the long
term, will it not impact India's credibility as a tourist
hotspot because safety concerns directly effect tourism, Perreira
says: "Yes it will and if that happens it is worrying.
But like I said, we can't be responsible for everyone."
With that the conversation is swiftly brought to an end.
The obvious conclusions are worrying. The stereotypes associated
with Indian police - lazy and lethargic - in the mind of foreginers
and the Indians alike is something the Indian police force
has worked hard to shrug off. But setbacks like these bring
their efforts to naught. The failure of the top dogs within
these institutions to acknowledge their own drawbacks further
compounds the problem.
India shining? That thought is farthest from the mind at
the moment
Please send your Opinions:
click below
*
Any comment or opinion on this article
* Have you any NRI news:
-
Politicians, entrepreneurs, business success story, and NRI
cover up stories
-
Abuse in NRI families- spouse, children, seniors; property
or other problems in India?
-
or Opinions to educate our NRIs: dowry, materialism,
gap cover up in raising kids, fraud in immigration ......so
on
*
Topics: if
you are our regular writer, we will paste your picture as
columnist, writer, author, or opinionist ->Click
here
|