From the Chief Minister to the Common Woman: Safety Remains Out of Reach in Delhi

By Urvi Prakash 

The assault on Delhi’s Chief Minister has laid bare the fragility of women’s safety in the capital, where even the most powerful remain vulnerable.

The Chief Minister Under Attack

On August 20, 2025, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta was gravely attacked during a public hearing, an incident officials described as deliberate and serious enough to attract an attempted-murder charge. Such a shocking lapse in high-profile security should alarm every woman navigating the city’s streets.

Safety at the Top, Fear at the Bottom

If the office of the Chief Minister, a post symbolizing power and protection can be violated, what message does that send to ordinary women? If women in authority, with visibility and security, remain vulnerable, what chance does the average college student, office-goer, or homemaker have?

The Numbers Behind the Fear 

Delhi leads major Indian metros in crimes against women:
● In 2022, the city recorded 14,247 cases, the highest among metros.
● That’s a crime rate of 144.4 per lakh, more than double the national average of 66.4.
● Daily, this breaks down to more than 3 cases every hour, including rapes, abductions, dowry deaths, and cruelty by relatives.
Behind every number is a face, a family, and a story abruptly rewritten by violence.

Slight Improvement, But Risks Persist

● By December 2024, Delhi Police reported a 10% drop in rape/POCSO cases and an overall 8.6% reduction in crimes against women.
But small improvements in numbers mean little when the city’s highest leader herself isn’t safe.

Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Fear

For women in Delhi, safety is not an abstract debate, it is stitched into every breath, every step, every choice.
● A young student hesitates outside her college gate, glancing at the sky: “क्या मैं अंधेरा होने से पहले घर पहुँच पाऊँगी?” The clock dictates her freedom more than her own will.
● A mother’s heart races until she sees a single blue tick on WhatsApp: “Reached home.” That tick is not casual, it is her lifeline.
● Pepper spray sits in handbags not as an accessory but as armor, as common as a pen, yet as heavy as dread.
● Women deliberately miss buses or metro rides if they look too empty, choosing inconvenience over the chance of being cornered.
● Many spend extra on longer, crowded routes home, not out of choice, but survival instinct.
● At offices, women weigh promotions and late shifts against their parents’ anxious faces and their own pounding fear: success feels dangerous if it comes after dark.
This is not freedom, it is survival disguised as routine. Delhi’s women live in a city where every street corner whispers caution, every dark lane becomes a battlefield, and every night out carries the silent calculation of risk. This is the “silent tax of fear” women pay in Delhi, invisible to NCRB reports, but carved into daily lives.

Beyond Police and Cameras

Safety is not built on CCTV cameras or patrol vans alone. It is built on respect, a value still missing in too many streets, homes, and minds. When catcalling, stalking, and casual harassment are brushed aside as “normal,” the city normalizes fear itself.

The Question Delhi Must Ask

If the capital of India cannot protect its women, whether in the corridors of power or in ordinary streets, what does that say about our society?
If even Delhi’s Chief Minister is unsafe, how safe is the woman waiting at the bus stop tonight?

The Last Word

Delhi calls itself the nation’s capital. But can a capital be proud if its women live in fear? The assault on the Chief Minister is not just an attack on a leader, it is a chilling reminder for every woman in the city.
If the Chief Minister isn’t safe, who is? And what hope remains for the ordinary woman walking home tonight?