Pepper spray and karate against rapists in India

Indian karate instructor Monimala Halder took up the sport as a teenager to keep fit. A few months ago, she and her sister used their skills to fend off two men on a motorcycle who were trying to grab them. "We managed to knock them off their motorbikes just as they were coming towards us and we beat them up," 35-year-old Halder told Reuters. She points out that an increasing number of women are taking self-defense classes in India, where women and children are often victims of sexual violence.

Police recently killed four men who were suspected of raping and murdering a 27-year-old veterinarian in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Some human rights groups and politicians have criticized the killings, saying they are concerned that due process has been circumvented, but the victim's family and many citizens have applauded the police's actions. India has tightened laws on sexual violence after the gang-rape of a girl on a bus in Delhi, in a case that stunned the world and sparked public outrage.

The number of reported rapes in India rose by 2012 percent between 2017 and 31, but authorities say this is due to increased awareness of the crime and not an actual increase in the number of attacks.

But a new wave of heinous attacks has reignited anger and women across India are increasingly practicing karate and buying pepper spray to defend themselves.

More than 100 women signed up for two separate self-defense courses in Kolkata last week, and similar courses with volunteer trainers are being held in other parts of the country.

"I learned how to defend myself using everyday items like a purse, a scarf and how to use our knees to protect ourselves," Anita Roy, 32, told Reuters.

In the northern city of Faridabad, Akanksha Katuria, mother of six-year-old twins, said she plans to organize self-defense classes after learning about the case in Hyderabad and the case of a woman in Uttar Pradesh who died after being set on fire on her way to court. the rapist and his helpers.

"I don't need to raise my daughters in constant fear that something bad will happen to them," she said.

Self-defense experts say that only a small fraction of India's total of 650 million women have access to such training, and that it is available mostly to women living in cities. Even fewer of them can train for long distances.

"Every time there is a major incident, we have an increase in demand," said Ritesh Reddy, a self-defense instructor in Bangalore. "However, in order to properly learn self-defense, you need to commit to it for a long time." The increase in demand does not only apply to self-defense courses. The Indian branch of Amazon says that after the incident in Hyderabad, sales of pepper spray increased eightfold.

The ten best-selling security products on Amazon's website in India last week were various types of pepper spray, while in the US, Canada or Singapore, for example, the most popular are alarm and home monitoring systems.

"Within four or five days, we sold all the products," said Rana Singh, the owner of the company that produces the popular "Cobra" sprays. He said that the most popular are those that can fit in a woman's purse.