(India) The Danger for Foreigners The tourism advertisements in television run across the world shows India as a country of hospitality, fun and frolic. Several tourist campaigns use the ancient Sanskrit rule Aatithi Devo Bhabah which means Guests in India are treated as Gods. Yet, a recent global survey by Forbes Magazine rated India amongst the least friendly countries for foreign visitors and expats. According to the survey, Canada has been rated as the friendliest country in the world, followed by Bermuda, South Africa, US, Australia, Spain, France, Britain, Malaysia and Germany as the top ten countries. The survey reveals a lot about the character of the Indian tourist campaigners and the Government, who makes big claims about the country’s hospitality but fails to provide even minimum protection and security at tourist hot spots. All major tourist locations and markets in India are hot favorite for criminals looking to target foreigners. Pickpocketing, bag snatching, passport theft, etc are common and regularly registered crimes in almost all crowded tourist spots of the country. When it comes to transportation, taxi drivers are known to loot foreign tourists charging unreasonably high fares and many at times even take them in a ride, driving all across the city to a destination which was just a few kilometer away! To make matters worse, several tourists who came to visit the country which is claimed to treat guests as Gods were raped in the past. The German tourist raped some years back in Rajasthan made headlines because the crime was committed by the son of a senior police officer of Orissa. There are several rape cases reported of foreigners, especially those coming from South Asian countries like Japan and Korea, in Agra, Gaya, etc. US citizens too were not spared from this inhuman crime and this had forced the Bureau of Consular Affairs to advise US women not to travel alone in India. The list of inconveniences to foreign visitors to India is not limited to tourists alone. The foreign nationals working in India due to their professional requirements faces huge inconveniences in their day to day life. Not only the language and culture barrier, it is often the attitude of the locals that hurts visitors to India, as reported by several expats in the past. Women often faces the dirty act of eve teasing on the streets and men has to listen to rude and comments meant at making fun of them. The survey proving India as a non-friendly country for foreign visitors is not only a shame to the nation but also a slap in the face of the blind nationalists who believes that their heritages and culture is the best in the world. And for the Government as well as to the civil societies of the country, this is a wake up call. If India continues to be rated as an unfriendly place, there would be a time not far away when no policy like 100% foreign investment or tax reduction will bring in tourists to the country. The hypocritical Aatithi Devo Bhabah punch line has to keep to its words if India does not want to lose its billion dollar tourism industry. But that looks like a distant dream as of now in a country where even people from other states are often not welcomed at most occasions, leave alone foreigners.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 08:59:55 +0000
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