15 years later, is Delhi safer for women now?

While driving back home after a concert in the mid-2000s, Vidya Shah was chased by four men in a car near Delhi's Nizamuddin colony one night. Speeding didn't help, so Shah who was in her 30s at the timetook an unexpected turn towards Jangpura.

- Somya Lakhani, Sadia Akhtar, Sanjeev K Jha and Aheli Das

"I managed to lose them, but it was a harrowing experience. Anything could have happened to me that night," recalled Shah, a renowned musician.

A few years later, in September 2008, when she read about the murder of Soumya Vishwanathan, a 25-year-old journalist, in her car in south Delhi's Nelson Mandela Marg, she had goosebumps. "No one knew who the culprits were and why they did this for a year after that, but it was scary. I remembered my own experience and wondered Soumya would have gone through," said Shah.

In 2008, the National Crime Records Bureau data showed there were 3,515 crimes recorded against women in Delhi. In 2009, the number faintly went up to 3,701. Last year, 13,988 such cases were registered, according to Delhi Police. In the last 15 years, the number has gone up-partially due to people's awareness and police's willingness to file FIRS-but is the city any safer?

Delhi has earned two infamous monikers over time - "crime capital" and "rape capital." The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of a young paramedic made international headlines, and led to massive protests, demanding change. Before that, however, in 1996, law student Priyadarshini Mattoo was found raped and murdered at her Delhi home by her stalker. In 1999, model Jessica Lal was shot dead at a party in Mehrauli by Manu Sharma after she refused to serve him a drink. In 2002, a medical student was raped near ITO. In 2005, a man, unwilling to accept rejection, threw acid on Laxmi Agarwal's face near Khan Market.