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Women's safety in India

Indians share their experiences of attitudes towards women in the country.

The recent rape and murder of a trainee doctor after a 36-hour hospital shift has, according to India’s top court, “shocked the conscience of the nation".

It has produced protests, strikes and outrage and has focussed conversations on what it’s like to be female in India, both at work and during everyday life. Arunima, for instance, lives close to the hospital, in Kolkata, where the murder happened. For her, even travelling on public transport has been traumatising after being touched inappropriately by another passenger.

“That person was a father,” she said. “He had his own daughter literally sitting right on his lap. I couldn’t… When I got off the bus, I couldn’t believe myself that that person would do really that. It just really broke me from within".

Host Luke Jones also hears from women doctors about security issues at their own hospitals in Ahmedabad, Gujarat - such as inadequate facilities to change scrubs or to sleep after long shifts - as well as attitudes towards women generally like victim blaming and "moral policing".

Two men also share their thoughts on what is to blame for how some Indian men treat women and what changes they feel need to be made within their society.

A Boffin Media production in partnership with the OS team.

(Photo: Dr Nandini Vaghani in India. Credit: Nandini Vaghani)

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23 minutes

Last on

Sun 25 Aug 2024 11:06GMT

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