8 Safety Tips For Expat Women

8 Safety Tips For Expat Women

If you are a woman working in India, you would have been warned by your friends or relatives for safety before you arrived in the country to be ‘careful’. Like any large city, India holds a bad perception as an unsafe location and the recent cases have drawn attention to the matter. It is best that one takes precaution and remain safe.

Here are some of the things you can do to make yourself safe as well as protect yourself from assailants:

1. Dress appropriately in public places so as not to attract undue attention, Indian are not used to seeing a lot of skin due to our culture and can have people staring at you and make you feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
2. Ensure that you live in safe housing, condos are recommended which have safety not only at the entrance of the premises but als0 at the entrance of the building and people cannot come without being announced.
3. Metro & uber are good safe ways to travel within the city, the first car of the metro is only for women, if you are traveling late at night then have someone escort you back home.
4. It’s always handy to keep a pepper spray handy for unexpected situations.
5. If you ever feel insecure then go to the nearest 5-star hotel, these are safe space and speak with the manager, they will assist you and you can stay there till someone comes to assist you.
6. If someone behaves badly in public call them out loudly and attract as much attention to deter the attacker this will normally have the desired result.
7. Be wary of relationships, if you are going commit, make sure that you have met the family and they are aware of your status, may Indian families do not approve of intercultural marriages.
8. Learn a few words of Hindi to make it appear that you have been in India for some time.

Having said all this, there are stereotypes about India which may or may not be entirely true.  There are all kinds of people. You may find yourself in difficult situations but help will always be around. It is important that you stay cautious to enjoy the safest experience possible.