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. In a paper published late last month in the latest edition of ‘Sarvekshana’, the Journal of the National Statistics Office, officials from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said a pilot survey conducted through phones showed that 88-90 per cent of respondents – including both men and women in rural and urban areas across two unspecified locations – felt safe while walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark. However, the proportion fell to as low as 69 per cent in the second location when the survey was conducted in-person and to an even lower 51 per cent when the indicator is calculated as defined by the United Nations. The need to walk alone The proportion of the population that feels safe walking alone around the area they live after dark is one of the global …