Other than outrage: On women, unsafe public spaces

There is a sickening sense of déjà vu in last month’s headlines of sexual assaults against women and children. In the national capital alone, the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl in Astha Kunj Park by three men posing as police personnel, the gang-rape and murder of a 16-year-old in Swaroop Nagar, and the gang-rape of another 17-year-old on a sleeper bus travelling from Greater Noida to Delhi have each shocked the nation briefly before giving way to a numb outrage. Little seems to have changed in the 14 years since the candlelight marches and commissions after the Nirbhaya case unleashed a slew of new schemes, laws and funds that vowed to protect women and girls from sexual violence, especially in public spaces. The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau shows an 80% surge in crimes against women since Nirbhaya, from 2.4 lakh in 2012 to 4.4 lakh in 2024. Some of this can be attributed to higher reporting of crimes, facilitated by those new laws and schemes, but that is not sufficient to account for the vast number of them. In 2024, more than 50 crimes against women were reported every hour, with the highest rate of such crimes seen in the metro cities of Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, and Delhi.The government has listed a slew of initiatives meant to deal with the problem, from the Safe City project to Mission Shakti, from a women’s helpline and emergency response support system to one-stop centres for survivors of sexual violence and fast-track courts, many of which have been financed through the Nirbhaya Fund. The recent crimes, however, put a question mark on the implementation of such schemes. A safe city cannot be created simply by installing lighting and CCTV cameras, if they are not functional, monitored, and connected to a response system. Police patrols and emergency numbers matter only if they result in prompt intervention from trained and sensitised personnel. It is important to move from scheme-based policing to preventive, and outcome-based policing, with public audits of vulnerable locations with deadlines and accountability to rectify deficiencies. The justice system must address the enormous backlog of cases; the promise of speedy investigation loses meaning if survivors spend years awaiting trial. The authorities must also resist the temptation to convert women’s safety into restrictions on women’s freedom. The answer to unsafe public spaces cannot be that women should avoid parks after dark, return home earlier, travel only with companions, or otherwise organise their lives around the possibility of male violence. Most importantly, there is a need to challenge the culture of sexual violence and toxic masculinity, enabled by age-old patriarchal traditions. Published - October 02, 2026 12:23 am IST