I think pants under the skirts women are wearing is a better idea in India for Western Tourists

When I visited India with my wife and family in the 1980s my wife found out in the country  where bathrooms for tourists didn't exist at all, or if they did men would watch the women go to the  bathroom. Now, one Australian businesswoman actually seemed to get off on all this and didn't care  but my wife was more modest so she found wearing a skirt hid her private parts if she had to go in public even if a public restroom because men would still come and watch my wife and daughter go to the  bathroom. Self discipline is not taught men there because they are not an English or European based culture. So Chivalry isn't there especially in the lower classes. Today things might be somewhat  different but this is one reason why women get raped there because they have no rights in the lower classes not to be raped because men who don't go to school see women like another race of people or more like animals only good for breeding and that's all. At least this is how it was in the 1980s around people, (men) who had never been to school in their lives which was quite common then. However, like I said it might be different in various different ways now because I haven't been to India since the 1980s.  I think in some ways this is how it is in Muslim Countries too. But, India is Hindu Majority and Muslims are  a minority there, so unless you go to Pakistan or Bangladesh Muslims are not a majority. begin quote from: India's tourist advice: Don't wear skirts

Safety tip from India's tourism minister: Don't wear skirts

By Saeed Ahmed, CNN

Updated 9:36 AM ET, Mon August 29, 2016

Mahesh Sharma, India's tourism minister, is backpedaling on his "don't wear skirts" comment.

Story highlights

• The outrage was immediate and for good reason
• This isn't the first time Sharma has stoked controversy

(CNN)India's tourism minister is furiously backpedaling after suggesting that women who visit India shouldn't wear skirts for their own safety.

Mahesh Sharma made the comments over the weekend while promoting a welcome kit that will be handed out to tourists when they arrive in India.

"There's a card in there listing the do's and don'ts. Basic things like, 'Don't go out at night alone.' 'Don't wear skirts.'"

The outrage was immediate. And for good reason.

A string of sexual assaults against foreign women has sullied India's reputation.

The country has amended its laws to broaden the definition of rape to include any form of penetration; it lists out strict punishments not only for rape but also for sexual assault, voyeurism and stalking.

But still, every high-profile case -- and there have been several -- brings the question to the forefront again: Is India doing enough to protect women? Is it creating a strong enough deterrent for crimes against women?

Backlash

For one thing, India is ill-equipped to process not just sexual assaults and rape, but all kinds of crime. It has a shortage of forensic laboratories; one of the worst police-to-citizens ratios in the world, and far fewer lawyers and judges than it needs to process cases.

Critics lambasted the minister, saying his comments put the onus on women, rather than on a government that ought to do a better job of improving security.

"Sir please give us bad women a lecture on Indian Culture. We are getting outta control N need to be harnessed!" said Sapna Moto Bhavnani, in one of many similar tweets taking the minister to task.

Backpedal

On Monday, Sharma tried to clarify what he meant.

"I am a father of two daughters...I would never tell women what they should wear or not," he told reoprters.

"Such a ban is unimaginable, but it is not a crime to be cautious. Different countries issue advisories from time to time, but I never said change anyone's way of dressing."

This isn't the first time, however, that Sharma has stoked controversy with his comments on how to ensure the safety of women.

Last year he said Indian women shouldn't go out at night.

"Girls wanting a night out may be all right elsewhere but it is not part of Indian culture," he said.

CNN has tried to reach Sharma for comment but without luck.

By the way, the pamphlet that Sharma referred to makes no mention of skirts.

CNN's Omar Khan and Ravi Agrawal contributed to this report