Life for women in India
Nalini Bharatwaj, 37, chairman of a management institute, holds a gun while posing in her office in New Delhi Jan. 16, 2013.
"Half of the time I am alone with my children, and sometimes I have to travel late at night from work. It is enough to shut up anyone trying to molest me or even pass a comment if I flaunt my gun," Nalini said.
Since a medical student died after being gang raped on a bus in New Delhi, the issue of women's security in India has been under the spotlight.
New Delhi
Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest outside police headquarters in New Delhi April 20, 2013.
Hundreds of angry protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Delhi police after a 5-year-old girl was allegedly raped and tortured, reviving memories of a brutal December assault on a woman that shook the country.
Utter Pradesh
Women try to enter the ladies' compartment of a crowded train heading toward Delhi at Noli Railway Station in Utter Pradesh Nov. 10, 2012.
In India, some train compartments, or sometimes whole trains, are reserved specifically for female passengers in an effort to make their travel easier and more secure.
Hyderabad
Ahmedabad
New Delhi
A demonstrator shouts slogans from inside a bus after she was detained by police near presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan during a protest rally organized by various women's organizations in New Delhi Dec. 21, 2012.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in various parts of the country to demand urgent action against the men who took turns to rape a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus on Dec. 16, local media reports said.
New Delhi
New Delhi
Anand
Surrogate mothers, from left to right, Daksha, 37; Renuka, 23; and Rajia, 39, pose for a photograph inside a temporary home for surrogates provided by Akanksha IVF center in Anand town Aug. 27, 2013.
India is a leading center for surrogate motherhood, partly due to Hinduism's acceptance of the concept. The world's second test tube baby was born in Kolkata only two months after Louise Brown in 1978.
Rising demand from abroad for Indian surrogate mothers has turned "surrogacy tourism" there into a billion dollar industry, according to a report by the Law Commission of India.
Siliguri
An HIV/AIDS patient stands in her hut in the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri July 23, 2005.
At least 7,200 people have died of AIDS in India, the world's second-worst affected nation, since an official count began two decades ago, a top health official said.
The United Nations estimates around 5.1 million people are HIV-infected in India, second only to South Africa.
New Delhi
A demonstrator standing on a barricade erected by police shouts slogans during a protest rally organized by various women's organizations in New Delhi Dec. 21, 2012.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in various parts of the country to demand urgent action against the men who took turns to rape a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus on Dec. 16, local media reports said.
New Delhi
Mumbai
New Delhi
Shaswati Roy Chaoudhary, 23, who works for an online fashion company, holds a bottle of pepper spray in a public park in New Delhi Jan. 14, 2013.
Shaswati said was given the pepper spray by a male friend for her self defense.
"The recent spate of events that have come to light have left me all the more threatened and alarmed," she said. "To take the first step towards self defense, I carry a pepper spray bottle. That apart, I can never relax on the roads once out of the house, almost always vigilant and looking out for trouble."
New Delhi
Simrat, 24, who works for a non-profit arts organization, travels in the women's compartment of a metro in New Delhi Jan. 12, 2013.
"I made the decision to use public transport as my primary way of moving through the city because I really believe that it is my right to be able to use public space, just as much as it is of any man's," Simrat said.
"Not using the metro or an auto or a bus or a cycle rickshaw (because it might not be a safe thing to do) is not an option in my mind because if I stop myself from living my life in ways that are most convenient to me, I'm giving into fear and ceding my independence. I use the metro because it's the most convenient travel option for me and I will continue to do so."
Mumbai
Srinagar
New Delhi
Chandravati, 30, poses with trousers belonging to her missing 3-year-old daughter Muskaan inside her house in New Delhi April 28, 2013.
Muskaan went missing while playing in the neighborhood Oct. 30, 2010, according to her family.
Between Jan. 1, 2013, and May 8, 2013, 725 children in Delhi were reported missing and are untraced, according to data from India's Zonal Integrated Police Network website.