India shows how sexual assault against women can hold back rise of nation

In the eight years from 2004, about 20 million women (the size of the combined populations of New York, London and Paris) vanished from India's workforce, the World Bank estimates

There are two things New Delhi marketing executive Khyati Malhotra never leaves home without: Her taser and a pepper spray.

It’s just part of the investment she makes to stay safe in a country where crimes reported against women have surged over 80 percent in a decade and deadly cases of sexual violence often roil cities and villages. So a chunk of Malhotra’s salary goes into a car and driver to avoid the dangers of public transport, where women are cat-called, groped and assaulted.

In Bangalore, Vidya Laxman, an executive at a multinational in India, pays for a battalion of