From karate to pepper spray, sexual assaults prompt Indian women to fight back

Instructors demonstrate self-defense techniques to women at a training camp in Kolkata, India December 8, 2019. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

KOLKATA/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian karate teacher Monimala Halder took up the sport in her teens as a way to get fit. A few months ago, she and her sister used their skills to fend off two men on a motorcycle trying to grab them as they rode past.

"I caught hold of the pillion rider just as he was reaching out for us and we beat them up," said Halder, 35, who has seen a steady rise in the number of women seeking self-defence classes in a country where women and children have long been subjected to sexual violence.