Women’s Safety in India: Gap Between Intention & Policy 

Syllabus: GS1/Society; GS2/Governance; Social Justice

Context

• More than a decade later, incidents such as those reported from Jamui in Bihar and Aastha Kunj in Delhi raise several fundamental questions i.e. why has expanded expenditure, legislation and infrastructure not translated into a comparable sense of safety for women.

About Women in India & Their Vulnerability

• Women constitute nearly half of India’s population, but their freedom to study, work, travel and use public spaces is often shaped by concerns about safety.
• It is particularly visible in cities, where poorly lit streets, unsafe public transport, isolated spaces and inadequate last-mile connectivity can restrict women’s mobility.
• According to NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 Report:
  • India recorded 4,41,534 cases of crimes against women in 2024.
  • National Crime Rate: 64.6 cases per lakh female population; a 1.5% decrease compared to 4,48,211 registered cases in 2023. 
  • Top Categories of Crimes Against Women: Cruelty by Husband or Relatives; Kidnapping and Abduction of Women; POCSO Act Offences (against girl children); Assault with Intent to Outrage Modesty; Rape; and Dowry Deaths.
• The NFHS-5 (2019–21) documents the persistence of domestic and gender-based violence. 
• Therefore, women’s safety is not simply a law-and-order concern; it is closely linked with gender equality, economic participation and inclusive development.

Need for Women’s Safety in India

• Constitutional Equality: Articles 14, 15 and 21 guarantee equality, non-discrimination and protection of life and personal liberty.
• Women’s Workforce Participation: Unsafe mobility can limit access to jobs and economic opportunities.
• Urban Development: Safe streets and transport are essential for inclusive cities.
• Women-led Development: Greater participation of women in public and economic life requires public spaces where they can move freely.

Issues Related to Safety of Women

• Implementation and Accountability Deficit: The Nirbhaya Fund, established after the 2012 incident, was intended to support initiatives for women’s safety.
  • Between 2015 and 2025, ₹5,846.08 crore was utilised against ₹7,712.85 crore allocated that has supported initiatives such as Women Help Desks in police stations and Fast Track Special Courts, among others.
  • But expenditure alone cannot establish whether women actually feel safer. A safety audit that identifies a dark road, a poorly designed bus stop or an unsafe passage is only the beginning.
• Infrastructure–Policy Mismatch: Several states provide free bus travel to women, improving affordability and mobility. But affordability alone does not ensure safety if buses have unpredictable waiting times, overcrowding or unsafe walking routes.
  • Research on gender and urban mobility shows that safety concerns influence women’s transport choices and their use of public spaces.
• Limited Female Presence in Public Spaces: Women’s under-representation among public-facing workers can reinforce the perception that public spaces are predominantly male domains.
  • Small regulatory changes can therefore expand women’s presence and employment.
  • For example, Delhi’s relaxation of the minimum height requirement for bus drivers from 159 cm to 153 cm in 2022, after which 34 women bus drivers were inducted by the following year.
• Gender Gap in Policing: Women constitute only about 10% of India’s police force, against the broader policy objective of increasing their representation to 33%.
  • Greater representation can improve accessibility of police institutions, particularly for survivors reporting gender-based crimes, while strengthening diversity within policing.

Efforts & Initiatives Related to Women’s Safety

• India has developed a substantial institutional framework:
  • Nirbhaya Fund for women’s safety projects.
  • Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, providing a statutory framework for prevention and redressal.
  • Women Help Desks at police stations.
  • Fast Track Special Courts for specified sexual offences.
  • One Stop Centres providing integrated support to women affected by violence.
  • Emergency Response Support System (112) for emergency assistance.
  • Safe City projects focusing on technology, infrastructure and policing.
  • Gender-sensitive urban planning and public-space initiatives, including those promoted globally through UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces approach.
• The challenge is therefore increasingly one of effective implementation, convergence and measurable outcomes.

Global Parallel: Safe Public Spaces

• UN Women’s approach emphasises that women’s safety requires more than policing. 
• Urban design, transport, lighting, community participation, institutional accountability and behavioural change must work together.
• It offers an important lesson for India: safety should be designed into cities rather than treated merely as a response after violence occurs.

Way Forward: Strengthening Measures

• From Audit to Accountability: Every safety audit should produce a time-bound action plan, publicly accessible progress dashboard and designated agency responsible for rectification.
• Outcome-Based Nirbhaya Fund: Fund utilisation should be assessed through indicators such as response time, infrastructure gaps addressed, conviction-related outcomes, functioning help desks and survivor satisfaction, rather than expenditure alone.
• Gender-Sensitive Urban Planning: Cities should adopt lighting audits, safe walking routes, reliable public transport, last-mile connectivity and participatory planning with women.
• Increase Women’s Workforce Participation: Remove unnecessary physical or regulatory barriers and establish targets for women in transport, policing, sanitation, parks and other public-facing services.
• Strengthen Policing and Justice: Recruitment of women police personnel should be accelerated alongside better investigation capacity, victim-support mechanisms, forensic infrastructure and time-bound trials.

Conclusion

• Women’s safety is not merely a law-and-order issue; it is a question of governance, urban planning, mobility, employment, justice and constitutional equality.
• The post-2012 period shows that India has created significant laws, funds and institutions.
  • The next challenge is ensuring that these translate into safe streets, responsive institutions and equal access to public spaces.
• The principle of ‘women-led development’ can become meaningful only when women are not merely beneficiaries of safety policies but active participants in designing, implementing and monitoring them.

Source: IE