Recent attacks on women in India have caused alarm for women tourists travelling to the subcontinent, particularly northern India, where cosmopolitan cities and hustle and bustle of crowded streets are the predominant attractions.

While most of the victims are local women, a recent attack on a young American woman a couple of weeks ago in a North Indian resort town has raised concern for women's safety from both international and domestic fronts.

In December 2012, a New Delhi student was killed during a gang rape, making the unfair and brutal treatment of women a national focus. A few months later in March 2013, the Indian government enacted a law criminalising acts such as voyeurism and harassing women.

Due to social taboos, experts and social workers say that many cases of rape and violence against women go unnoticed in India. The actual numbers are more than those reported to the police. The violent attacks on women have gone up in recent years in a country that has thrived on a male chauvinistic attitude towards women.

The differentiating factor is that tourism was encouraged in the past as a means of fostering a lacklustre economy.
Now, the Indian tourist industry has been sidelined and may be in jeopardy as revenues in foreign currencies continue to dwindle in tandem with a decline in tourism. India is badly in need of foreign exchange since its domestic economy cannot pay for oil and coal it imports with the local Rupee currency.

With the rise of its middle class, India swiftly survived the global economic downturn roiled by the credit crisis in the U.S. housing sector in 2008. But,India can barely afford to narrow its margin of approximately $18 billion from foreign tourism. Tourism, as a whole, generates six percent of India's GDP, employing roughly 10 million, reports The New York Times.

The prevailing mood of women travelling to India is still one of fear. A San Francisco resident, 24-year-old Corinne Aparsis who works with the Foundation for Sustainable Development, told The New York Times that she is travelling to India with more anxiety than she is used to when travelling to other foreign countries. She said that the most recent gang-rape in Delhi is still on her mind.