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Journalism of Courage
Almost nine out of 10 Indians feel safe walking alone in their neighbourhoods after dark. However, the proportion drops sharply depending on how the question is asked, a study from the statistics ministry’s Household Survey Division has found.
The proportion of the population that feels safe walking alone around the area they live after dark is one of the global indicators under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the UN in 2015. The indicator falls under the 16th goal, which targets the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all, and the building of effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
According to UNICEF, the ‘fear of crime’ in itself is noteworthy “as a high level of fear can negatively influence well-being and lead to reduced contacts with the public, reduced trust and activities and thus an obstacle to development”.
While this indicator is one of the global SDG indicators, India has so far not compiled data on it. In its study, MoSPI’s Household Survey Division looked to examine if it was feasible to collect this data using telephonic interviews. In addition to concluding that telephonic surveys may be conducted to collect perception-based data “at minimum costs with some pre-defined norms”, the paper also found that the UN’s definition of the indicator was problematic.
According to the UN, the response to the question about how safe people feel walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark should be one of: ‘very safe’, ‘safe’, ‘unsafe’, ‘very unsafe’, ‘I never go out alone at night/does not apply, and ‘don’t know’. The final indicator is then calculated by adding together the number of respondents who feel ‘very safe’ and ‘safe’, dividing the number by the total number of respondents, and multiplying by 100.
This is problematic. Why? Because those who never go out alone after dark can’t answer the question as ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’. And yet, they are being counted – as part of the total number of respondents – to calculate the indicator.
According to MoSPI officials, the UN’s definition leads to a situation where the indicator cannot be any number between 0 and 100 – a property that any percentage indicator must have. Consider a situation where 50 per cent of respondents feel ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’, 10 per cent feel ‘very unsafe’ or ‘unsafe’, 10 per cent ‘don’t know’, and 30 per cent don’t go out alone. In this case, the maximum value the indicator can have is 70 per cent – because 30 per cent of respondents don’t even venture out at night and can’t possibly answer the question with ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’. This is why the MoSPI paper suggested a tweak in the formula, leading to the higher indicator value in its pilot surveys.
According to analytics firm Gallup’s latest Global Safety Report, 73 per cent of adults worldwide said in 2024 that they felt safe walking alone at night where they live – the highest the figure has been since Gallup began tracking the data.
“Women, in particular, remain less likely than men to feel secure, a gap that persists across more than 100 countries, regardless of income or stability,” the report, based on interviews with 145,170 people aged 15 and older, said. Singapore, Tajikistan, and China topped the charts with 98 per cent, 95 per cent, and 94 per cent, respectively, of respondents saying they felt safe walking alone at night where they live. India came in 59 out of 144 countries with 72 per cent. At last place was South Africa, with just 33 per cent.
