QUOTE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7216890.stm
"I was abducted by a stranger and taken to an isolated place. And my attacker said he wanted to kill me."
These are the words of a British woman who we are calling Sarah - it is not her real name. Earlier this month, in Goa where she lives, she was raped after accepting a lift on a motorbike.
She is just one victim among thousands. The numbers are horrifying. On average across India there are 53 rapes a day, and recently released government statistics suggest that it is the fastest growing crime in the country.
Now, a series of attacks on women tourists, and a string of serious sexual assaults caught on camera, have pushed this often hidden issue into the spotlight.
'Very violent'
"In hindsight it was probably premeditated," says Sarah, referring to the night she was raped. "And when I returned to the scene and saw where he'd taken me, it frightened me even more."
"Not only was my ordeal very violent - and this man should be caught because of that - but one of the reasons I decided to speak out is that I know a lot of Goan women can't speak out so easily."
That is because the vast majority of women subjected to sex attacks in India are poor, low-caste and powerless. As a foreigner Sarah is relatively well off, and she is white.
But in places like Goa that can make you more vulnerable in other ways. At times, says Sarah, there is an obsession with white skin.
"I'm not a typical tourist. But would it be less shocking if I'd been dancing at a full moon party on one of the tourist beaches half dressed? In that sense is there an inevitability about it? No.
"And I do take some responsibility of course - I got on a stranger's bike at 1045 at night. But you're lulled into a false sense of security."
"I was at a very sober concert, well-to-do people everywhere, it was fully lit and it's quite normal to get on taxi bikes here. I only wanted a 10-minute lift to a rickshaw stand actually. And it was only once I was on board that the plan changed."
After the publicity generated by the recent attacks on foreign women, the Indian government has plans to deploy thousands of retired defence personnel as an unofficial protection force at popular tourist destinations.
Up to five million foreign tourists visit India every year, and in places like Goa tourism is the mainstay of the local economy. So there is real concern about safety.
But are sex crimes really becoming more common, or are they now being reported more widely?
'Angry'
Almost every day there are stories in the papers of women subjected to molestation and eve-teasing - Indian euphemisms for sexual assault and harassment.
On New Year's Eve a mob of more than 50 men sexually assaulted two women on a street in an upmarket area of Mumbai. It made headlines because two newspaper photographers happened to be there too.
"I'm angry, I'm furious, what makes you really angry is how little the mindset has changed," says India's Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury.
"What authorises an individual to believe that a woman on the road is his free entertainment? That's what makes me angry."
Ms Chowdhury says she is determined that things will be different in the future. She is working to change attitudes among the police and the judiciary, and to promote respect for women in schools.
"It's time for us to take action," she says.
And her response to the prominently reported suggestion from a senior Mumbai police officer - that perhaps wives and daughters should stay at home?
"If he said that then he's in a lot of trouble with me. How dare someone talk like that, and how backward is that? If he has said it, it also shows the agenda that I have ahead of me."
'Bollywood fantasy'
And all this is happening in a country in the midst of rapid social change.
But while some attitudes to sex and to women are changing, many prejudices stay the same. And there is what Sarah describes as a bewildering speed of modernisation.
"There's such wide access to multimedia Bollywood fantasy. In fact, without wanting to go into detail about it, my attack bore all the hallmarks of someone trying to act out a fantasy.
"As an experience it does violate you. I'm now very tentative about everything I do in terms of what signal I give. I was always very aware. But now you think: what should I wear?
"I don't know any answers. I really don't."
The response to her attack from Goan friends and neighbours, she says, has been quite overwhelming in its kindness and shock.
Her mission now - to ensure that if someone is arrested, it really is the right person.
In cases like Sarah's there is political pressure for answers. Rape cases involving visiting tourists have been fast-tracked through the court system in recent times.
But for thousands of women victims in India there is still nothing - only silence.
"I was abducted by a stranger and taken to an isolated place. And my attacker said he wanted to kill me."
These are the words of a British woman who we are calling Sarah - it is not her real name. Earlier this month, in Goa where she lives, she was raped after accepting a lift on a motorbike.
She is just one victim among thousands. The numbers are horrifying. On average across India there are 53 rapes a day, and recently released government statistics suggest that it is the fastest growing crime in the country.
Now, a series of attacks on women tourists, and a string of serious sexual assaults caught on camera, have pushed this often hidden issue into the spotlight.
'Very violent'
"In hindsight it was probably premeditated," says Sarah, referring to the night she was raped. "And when I returned to the scene and saw where he'd taken me, it frightened me even more."
"Not only was my ordeal very violent - and this man should be caught because of that - but one of the reasons I decided to speak out is that I know a lot of Goan women can't speak out so easily."
That is because the vast majority of women subjected to sex attacks in India are poor, low-caste and powerless. As a foreigner Sarah is relatively well off, and she is white.
But in places like Goa that can make you more vulnerable in other ways. At times, says Sarah, there is an obsession with white skin.
"I'm not a typical tourist. But would it be less shocking if I'd been dancing at a full moon party on one of the tourist beaches half dressed? In that sense is there an inevitability about it? No.
"And I do take some responsibility of course - I got on a stranger's bike at 1045 at night. But you're lulled into a false sense of security."
"I was at a very sober concert, well-to-do people everywhere, it was fully lit and it's quite normal to get on taxi bikes here. I only wanted a 10-minute lift to a rickshaw stand actually. And it was only once I was on board that the plan changed."
After the publicity generated by the recent attacks on foreign women, the Indian government has plans to deploy thousands of retired defence personnel as an unofficial protection force at popular tourist destinations.
Up to five million foreign tourists visit India every year, and in places like Goa tourism is the mainstay of the local economy. So there is real concern about safety.
But are sex crimes really becoming more common, or are they now being reported more widely?
'Angry'
Almost every day there are stories in the papers of women subjected to molestation and eve-teasing - Indian euphemisms for sexual assault and harassment.
On New Year's Eve a mob of more than 50 men sexually assaulted two women on a street in an upmarket area of Mumbai. It made headlines because two newspaper photographers happened to be there too.
"I'm angry, I'm furious, what makes you really angry is how little the mindset has changed," says India's Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury.
"What authorises an individual to believe that a woman on the road is his free entertainment? That's what makes me angry."
Ms Chowdhury says she is determined that things will be different in the future. She is working to change attitudes among the police and the judiciary, and to promote respect for women in schools.
"It's time for us to take action," she says.
And her response to the prominently reported suggestion from a senior Mumbai police officer - that perhaps wives and daughters should stay at home?
"If he said that then he's in a lot of trouble with me. How dare someone talk like that, and how backward is that? If he has said it, it also shows the agenda that I have ahead of me."
'Bollywood fantasy'
And all this is happening in a country in the midst of rapid social change.
But while some attitudes to sex and to women are changing, many prejudices stay the same. And there is what Sarah describes as a bewildering speed of modernisation.
"There's such wide access to multimedia Bollywood fantasy. In fact, without wanting to go into detail about it, my attack bore all the hallmarks of someone trying to act out a fantasy.
"As an experience it does violate you. I'm now very tentative about everything I do in terms of what signal I give. I was always very aware. But now you think: what should I wear?
"I don't know any answers. I really don't."
The response to her attack from Goan friends and neighbours, she says, has been quite overwhelming in its kindness and shock.
Her mission now - to ensure that if someone is arrested, it really is the right person.
In cases like Sarah's there is political pressure for answers. Rape cases involving visiting tourists have been fast-tracked through the court system in recent times.
But for thousands of women victims in India there is still nothing - only silence.