India will encourage tourism workers to wear an ‘I respect women’ badge in an effort to reassure female tourists that the country is safe for travel.
The move aims to repair India’s reputation following well-publicised reports of sexual assault on women, including tourists.
Last weekend, a French woman was chased through a residential area of Calcutta by a biker, according to local media reports.
The badges will be printed in English, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Russian, German and Japanese.
Some 6.65 million foreign tourists visited India last year. Of them, 40 per cent were women.