That Delhi is unsafe for women was once again reaffirmed in the wee hours of Tuesday when a woman TV journalist was killed while returning from office. The incident has shaken the confidence of women who are in professions that require them to drive home late. And when a woman chief minister says chastisingly that people should not be ‘‘adventurous’’ at that hour, it seems for those who govern us, it’s business as usual.

Recalling a recent nightmarish experience, call centre administrator Sandhya Dwivedi (name changed) told TOI: ‘‘I was returning to my Lajpat Nagar home from my Gurgaon office around 4 am. Suddenly, a car with five young boys started racing with me. When I slowed down to let them pass, they too slowed down. Then, to my horror, they tried to block my car. I hit the car and kept going. I knew if I stopped, there’d be trouble. I located the nearest PCR van and informed them of the incident.’’

Even if Delhi Police PRO ACP Rajan Bhagat claims that there are enough PCR vans and surprise checks at night to keep criminals at bay, stories like Sandhya’s are not rare. And Soumya Viswanathan’s murder has left families shaken. Devina Tiwari, who works for a media house and says she has been ‘‘chased and eve-teased countless times while driving,’’ has now been barred from taking the car. ‘‘My father is too scared,’’ she says.

People talk about the futility of a security arrangement where there is maximum police deployment at a central location like India Gate while isolated stretches like Nelson Mandela Marg where Soumya was murdered are left unattended.

Mudhu Thakur who returns home after 2 am almost everyday from work said: ‘‘I also stay in Vasant Kunj and have to drive through the same stretch everyday. For almost 3-4 km, there are no PCR vans. This was an incident waiting to happen.’’

To deal with such situations, working women have devised safety measures like ‘‘memorising’’ the location of all PCR vans on the route that they take daily, carrying pepper spray and keeping PCR number 100 on speed dial mode on their mobile phones. But, points out Neha Puri, a call centre employee, ‘‘I would not get the time to use any of that if something like Soumya’s fate befalls me.’’

Bhagat, though, thinks just one case is ‘‘too early to comment on the security arrangements. Necessary steps will be taken if we find loopholes.’’ Soumya was murdered, but hundreds of others like her are time and again reminded how being women robs them of the right to travel freely and safely. From public transport to markets, women in Delhi learn to live with lewd gestures and comments and devise their own ways to deal with it.

DU student Priyanka Sharma travels with a compass in her bag to ‘‘set boys right. Almost every day when I take the bus to my college, somebody tries to touch me or says something nasty. Nobody helps if you create a noise, so the best answer is a poke,’’ she says.

Experts feel that the real reason for the city being so unsafe for women is the ‘‘feudal mindset’’ of its citizens and the fact that there is no sense of ‘‘community’’ in Delhi. ‘‘North Indians have still not learnt to accept women as equals, and this conservative attitude gets reflected everywhere. There is also a sense of being above the law which is a manifestation of lax policing,’’ said Ranjana Kumari of Centre for Science and Research.

For foreigners, it’s an ordeal twice over even if they are residents. ‘‘My wife is a Spanish national who finds it impossible to go out alone. People stare at her, abuse her in Hindi and touch her, even in so called upmarket areas like Khan Market,’’ said Somit Das, a doctor.

Strangely enough, though women feel unsafe in the city, Delhi Policestatistics show a steep drop in the number of cases of molestation and raperegistered till August 15 this year. ‘‘There has been a reduction of 25 % in the number of molestation cases as only 390 cases have been registered this year. About 330 cases of rape have been registered, a fall of 25 from last year,’’ said an officer.