You could ask this question to any woman in Delhi,
and she'll have the same answer, that nobody feels safe.
If you're walking in the night, if you don't wear clothes
that Indian women are supposed to wear, then you can be raped.
Victims should be blamed. This is the psychology we suffer.
It's unbelievable that in a city like this which is so forward,
the mentality and the perception is so backward.
A young woman allegedly gang-raped in a moving bus.
Brutal rape in the capital.
The 23-year-old died in a Singapore hospital after suffering severe organ failure.
The death of the woman sparked mass protests across the country.
The family, of course, is shattered by this.
I think each and every girl, each and every parent, each and every person
was shocked to the core.
People were asking the government:
'What kind of safety and security women have in this country?'
The laws were changed and things did happen immediately,
but then five years later, people forget and move on to other things.
I've lived my entire life in Delhi, I was born here.
This is normal for me, nothing has changed it has only gotten worse.
I've faced harassment in Delhi, like, more times than I can count.
People stalking us, people touching us inappropriately.
You know, somebody will cat-call you, pinch you.
It's evening, it's noon-time, it's night.
It's really unsafe and it's not just a particular area in the city,
all over the city.
I do go out at night in Delhi and that's very frequent,
except every time I do I cause anxiety
not just for myself but for my entire family to be honest.
You cannot even think about taking public transport after nine o'clock.
My father drops me and picks me up because the
thought of being in public transport all alone,
makes me feel a bit scared.
Our safety was always my father's, my brother's, my husband's responsibility.
But today, that concept is changing.
Somewhere in my conscience I know that if I'm caught in a bad situation I know
I know how to get out of it.
I know the kind of strength that my body is capable of,
it makes me feel a little more relaxed.
The major reason why the parents are sending their girls,
it's just because in the back of their minds it's continuously playing that
if I'm not around with my daughter, can she take care of herself or not?
My daughter is more confident, more powerful because she knows karate.
It's one type of women's empowerment.
I have my doubts about this whole self-defence thinking.
Asking women to keep themselves safe is a very problematic narrative because
we are keeping the onus of safety on women.
You can't tell the girls that, you know:
'Learn self-defence and you will be able to protect yourself.'
What are you trying to do? You are trying to tell the rest of the society,
men and boys:
'You can continue doing what you want to do. But girls should protect themselves.'
This is not the answer.
We had asked for a woman in every police station
because we have only 9% women in the police in Delhi.
But now it has been extended to an all-women police squad.
I think these are gimmicks and they won't work.
Why should men police not protect women?
You know, why only women police should protect women?
This entire topic of women's safety, women empowerment goes back
to this topic of patriarchy.
We can keep asking for better policing and better
legal framework and more governance and lighting
and CCTVs and everything around,
but the real change really needs to come from within the society,
and that definitely hasn't happened.
At one point my mother is telling me that: 'OK, whatever you want to do, you can do it.'
But at the other moment only then she is telling me that:
'You should not wear that dress because boys will stare at you outside.'
I feel like everybody including me, grows up with that mentality
and it takes a long time for you to realise that
and unlearn all of that patriarchy in your head.
What the 2012 gang-rape case did was bring the issue of sexual violence
on your dinner table.
My mother's generation ignored it all.
They did not have the right tools, the knowledge, the information,
the people, the community to help them get there.
Women are now ... they've got a voice.
And that voice, now you can feel.
But it's definitely going to take a lot more than five years
to get that sort of a mind-shift in people ...
where they realise that no means no.