India for women: 6 tips for female travelers

India can be challenging for a Western female traveler. It is generally safe, but to make things easier, here are some tips for the trip:

• Come prepared for being the center of attention

Often it is friendly and curious, and people can be incredibly welcoming, but for a traveling woman, all the male attention can be downright annoying. Get used to being stared at, whistled at, followed and even groped – it is called “Eve-teasing” in India and it affects tourists and Indian women alike. The best way to deal with sexual harassment is to ignore the stares, but to publicly confront followers and gropers: usually shouting at them will attract plenty of attention from onlookers, which is generally enough to get rid of unwanted “admirers”.

Get also used to being asked if you are married, and if not, then why not; and don’t be offended by the inevitable look of pity when it turns out you really do not have a husband. (Sometimes it can be a good idea to invent one.)

• Always, always dress appropriately

Pay attention to what local women wear, and you should get a pretty good idea. Most Indian women wear a traditional sari or a salwar kameez (long tunic and loose pants), although in bigger cities more and more women are wearing Western clothes. So, bikinis, tank tops and short skirts might be ok on a beach in Goa (although going nude or topless is definitely not), but they are not acceptable when traveling through villages in rural North India. Shoulders should be covered and trousers or skirts should cover most of your legs. If visiting a temple or a mosque, dress codes are much stricter than if walking down the street in New Delhi, so as a general idea it is always better to wear too much than too little.

• Sometimes it’s good to be a woman!

Most trains have a “Ladies carriage” which provides a grope-free haven for women travelers. There might even be a “Ladies queue” at the train station, which means you can jump to the front of the ticket queue and be served before men. Buses have “Ladies seats”, and the bus conductor will find a lone female traveler a seat next to another female. In rural India women and men tend to sit separately in local buses anyway.

• Don’t be surprised if…

… an Indian woman starts to poke at your nose or pull your earlobes and tells you that you should pierce your nose or start to wear earrings. Indian women can be very straightforward when it comes to passing judgments on your appearance. Most of it is done in good humor, but it might take some time to get used to strangers telling you “you must wear more gold” or “you have become fat”.

• Trust your intuition

The best way to guarantee your safety is to trust your own feeling about a place. If a hotel or a guesthouse doesn’t feel safe, find another one. It usually makes sense to pay a little bit more for a room than to risk your personal safety. If a person you are talking to feels dodgy, walk away. There are over a billion people in India to talk to.

• And finally…

Tampons are available in India, although choice of brand might be limited.

Picture of ladies toilet sign in Orissa, India originally posted by Capitan Giona

Topic:  Tips and Ideas | 1 Comment
Tags:  safety tips, solo travel

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About the author

Satu was born in Finland, but moved to London in 1996 and lived there for 10 years working as a journalist. She has spent the last couple of years mostly in India, practicing yoga and travelling.