“80% of women face harassment.”Rahul Gandhi, Chhatron Ki Goonj rally, Pune, 22 August 2026
Rated Misleading
The facts
Rahul Gandhi is relying on an old 2016 ActionAid UK/YouGov survey, which found that 79% of 502 women surveyed in major Indian cities had experienced some form of harassment or violence in public spaces. This was not a current national survey of Indian women.
More importantly, he does not put this figure against the latest available evidence, because if he had used the latest figure, his entire narrative would have been challenged.123124125
The NARI 2025 survey, covering 12,770 women across 31 cities, found that 40% of urban women felt “not so safe” or “unsafe” in their cities, a figure far lower than Rahul Gandhi’s 80% narrative.123124125
This is what Modi government has done:
Women Helpline 181: Operational across almost all States/UTs; has handled over 2.1 crore calls and assisted over 84 lakh women.
Emergency Response 112: Pan-India emergency number operational in all 36 States/UTs; over 43 crore calls handled.
Stronger laws under BNS: Since 1 July 2024, BNS provides death/life imprisonment for gang rape of minors, criminalises sex obtained through deceitful means, and strengthens provisions on trafficking and offences against women.
Rahul also leaves out the situation during the Congress-led UPA era. A UN Women-supported Delhi survey conducted in 2012 found that 95% of women and girls felt unsafe in public spaces.126
Similarly, a 2013 Times of India survey found that 96% of women surveyed in Delhi said they did not feel safe on the city's streets or in Metro stations after dark, while two-thirds reported experiencing misbehaviour on the streets.127
If the situation in the national capital itself was this difficult during the UPA period, it raises an obvious question about the broader urban safety environment at the time.