Women activists yesterday reacted angrily to a recent police call for females not to venture out late night unescorted.

“It’s an archaic way of looking at things in a modern world,” said Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research.

Delhi’s police commissioner B K Gupta, who made the comment, is “shirking responsibility.” Instead of making the city safe for women, he is putting the blame on them, she said.

“If you are in a business process outsourcing job, in media or airport duty or if your train or flight gets delayed, you have no choice but keep unearthly hours,” she said.

“What about single women and divorcees? What if someone is sick, does a woman have to wait till sunrise to take the person to hospital?”  asked Philomena Mavely, secretary of the Council of Catholic Women.

“Next he will ask us to stay indoors and ensure safety,” she said.

There are many women who stay alone. Constitution guarantees the right to every citizen to move freely throughout the country, said advocate Jessy Kurian.

“It is the duty of the state machinery to provide protection to all citizens day and night. By making such a statement, Gupta has no moral or legal stand to continue as chief of Delhi Police,” she added.

All crimes don’t take place at night. Just a day before he made the statement, a women traveling along with her husband on a two-wheeler was shot dead and her chain snatched, said Kumari.

City police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the commissioner’s speech was “misinterpreted”.

He said Gupta had only asked women to play safe during a ‘face-to-face with Delhi police’ at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Ladies Organisation on July 9 .

To a query during the discussion on why the city was witnessing at least one rape case every day, Gupta had said that women should not venture out alone late at night and claim that the city is unsafe. “Delhi is absolutely safe but avoid late nights.”

According to the latest half-yearly crime figures, the number of rape cases registered has come down to 258 this year as against 289 in the corresponding six months last year.