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India is an unsafe society for all, particularly for vulnerable sections of society. Tourists are given advisories to be cautious as India has earned a notoriety internationally as an unsafe destination, especially for women.
Indian society is unsafe because of the failure of governance and an ineffective criminal-justice system. In the post-Nirbhaya era, an effort was made to rationalise legislation. One has to focus on enforcement agencies, police and judiciary. We do not only have a patriarchal mindset but also authoritarian attitudes. The mindset that one invariable comes across is: “Sir, you don’t understand! She is at fault.” The judiciary is too slow in dispensation of justice. The problem is lack of swift justice — delayed and denied. The most important factor responsible for the lack of safety norms is the question of lack of certainty and swiftness of punishment, while there is more stress on its severity. Differential implementation of the law is another factor affecting the safety in a city, and lack of compliance. Development is trying to promote urbanisation and away from agriculture. Character of urbanisation is slummy and messy. Data indicates as number of slums go up, places become increasingly unsafe. To whom does the city belong? The elite, the marginalised or the masses? Whatever safety is there exists only for those living in posh localities. We forget that modernisation does not only imply advancement but also equity, gender justice and progressive laws. Since development is chaotic, it is economy and the polity that remain in the forefront and not society and culture. The latter are in the background.
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There are three broad forces of sociological change. The advent of globalisation, urbanisation and modernisation has led to denigration and commodification of women as well as expansion of consumerism. The pace of change is so staggering that the agencies of social control fail to handle it and manage it.
