India is a reasonably safe travel destination. Political disruption is usually localised and everyone’s aware of there being potential trouble days ahead. Areas that may be avoided are Jammu & Kashmir and parts of the Northeast, which in any case have restricted tourist activity. Cases of mugging, theft and worse aren’t completely unheard of but by and large serious crimes against travellers are few and far between.
Basic precautions:
1:-Keep your money and travel documents close to your body (perhaps in a pouch slung around your neck, tucked out of sight under your shirt),
2:-Keep several photocopies of your passport, insurance, travellers’ cheques etc. scattered through your luggage,
3:-Do not use a waist pouch, it may as well be a transparent plastic bag: it’s that fragile and that obvious!
4:-Do not put all your money in one place,
5:-Be extremely alert in the dark. One of the things that protect travellers to India is the vast crowds in any place. The multitudes however, disappear into their homes at night, and you go from having a huge thick safety quilt to a flimsy sheet! Try your best to be in a familiar area when it gets dark. If you are not, at least know how you can get to that area from wherever it is that you happen to be.
6:-Many women travellers wear the long tunic and loose pyjama dress of Indian women called the salwar-kameez and find that it substantially dissuades unwanted male attention.
7:-If you are travelling alone, do not advertise it.
8:-If you lose your passport lodge a First Information Report at the local police station and contact your embassy.