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Increased tourist inflow blamed for rapes, molestations

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Government has attributed the growing instances of misbehaviour with foreign women tourists visiting the State to the increasing tourist inflow. Considering the large number of tourists visiting Rajasthan, the cases of rape and molestation are minuscule, it maintains.

“So many tourists are coming. We have doubled the number of tourist arrivals in the State from 121 lakh in 2003 to over 250 lakh in 2007. Going by this, the number of cases are negligible,” said Rajasthan Tourism Minister Usha Punia here over the weekend.

She was briefing the media on the achievements of her departments during the four years of the BJP Government in the State.

“The harassment of tourists is a national problem. There have been many such instances elsewhere in the country too,” contended Ms. Punia, adding, “The safety of tourists visiting Rajasthan is our concern and we feel sad at what happens after we work hard all these days to promote tourism.”

The State is agog with happenings -- or rather mishaps -- on the tourism front even when the season is excellent for the industry.

Only a couple of days back there were two separate incidents of alleged rape involving foreign tourists in Rajasthan.

One of them involved a Japanese tourist visiting the holy township of Pushkar in Ajmer district and the other, a British journalist in Udaipur.

To add to the discomfiture of the authorities in this tourism-centric State, the media is full of reports about the surrender of the senior police officer B. B. Mohanty, who is being made to pay for the misconduct of his son Bitihotra, sentenced for raping a German tourist at Alwar in the year 2006.

The Rajasthan authorities have yet another explanation for the growing incidence of molestation of women tourists—that they are not abiding by the guidelines.

“The tourists very often do not adhere to the guidelines. They ignore the rules and regulations of the country and the state they are visiting and get into trouble. In most of the cases the incident takes place when the person involved does not have the knowledge of the system,” Ms. Punia argued. Some of the foreign tourists also show tendencies to stay back even after the expiry of their visa, she added.

“We have informed the embassies to advise their respective nationals on the taboos and the cultural norms here. We are also trying to educate the visitors on safe conducts while they are here,” Ms. Punia said, promising quick action on the complaints.

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