Even as we pride ourselves in our culture of welcoming guests with open arms and treating them like gods, the crime data on how we really treat foreign tourists in our national capital does not bode too well.
According to a recently released National Crime Records Bureau report, Delhi tops the list of States and Union Territories in crimes against foreigners. Of the total number of 486 cases registered by foreigners for crimes against them, 164 cases were in Delhi. That’s 33% of all the cases in India just in Delhi. Popular tourist destination Goa comes a distant second with 73 cases of crime against foreigners.
Number of theft cases was the highest of all the crimes committed against foreigners with 260 out of the 486 case being related to theft. Five cases of murders and four cases of attempt to commit murder were reported. In all 22 cases of robbery and 22 cases of cheating were also registered by the NCRB.
In crimes related to women, the NCRB report records 22 cases of rape, 1 case of attempt to commit rape, 39 cases under section 354 IPC which deals with assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty and 3 cases under section 509 of the IPC which deals with insult to the modesty of women.
Following the December 2012 gang rape case, Hindustan Times reported that although the number of foreign tourists in India has risen in 2014 by 10 percent, the number of women foreign tourists has declined from 41.2 per cent to 40 per cent during the same period.
Incredible India’s website also warns women tourists of exercising caution while staying or travelling alone to avoid undesirable incidents.
In most of the above mentioned cases the foreigners against whom crime was committed were tourists.
The North Eastern States of India have a reason to be proud of, as not a single case of crime being committed against foreigners were recorded in seven of the states. Manipur is the only state out of the eight north eastern states which has reported a single case of crime committed against a foreigner.