Chennai: Despite the media reports painting an adverse picture on lack of security to women travellers in India, the World Travel Market (WTM), London, says India is showing positive attitude to women. Besides, tourism in India is helping to empower women by providing unique employment opportunities, the report reveals.
While this WTM Global Trends Report 2016, in association with Euromonitor International, released at WTM London, may encourage more women from within the country and overseas to take up solo trips, as per vital findings of the Government, Tamil Nadu is fourth among the top five states in India where women travel widely. Barring Karnataka, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey revealed that women in the southern states travelled extensively.
The recently carved state of Telangana is second (60 %) after Pubjab (66) in most women travelers taking up overnight trips followed by Kerala (58 % ), Tamil Nadu (55 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (53 percent). The NSSO recent survey collected the data in two ways — travel completed in last 365 days for holiday, medical and shopping purposes and secondly: travel completed in the past 30 days for business, religion, social, education and other reasons. Of the trips undertaken in the last 365 days, 49% of single member overnight trips for health reasons were by women, which was the most for any category, while the least was 17 per cent for shopping.
As to the larger question of women safety, the WTM report says a number of safety apps have been developed for women in India, such as Ridesafe, which offer tracking, emergency messaging and route deviation detection. It also has a word of praise for Kerala where “She-taxi” is operated for female-only clients, using women-only drivers.
The Women on Wheels project boosts the number of female breadwinners in the family by training to become professional drivers. The Stand Up India, launched by the Indian government to supply loans to women to create their own businesses, is another instance of the country showing its positive attitude.
