The number of female tourists visiting India has fallen by more than a third since the gang-rape in which a 23-year-old student died, according to business leaders there.

Visitor numbers have dropped in all parts of the country, not just in New Delhi, where December’s attack took place, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said Monday.

The brutal assault was shocking even to a nation inured to sexual crimes against women, and thousands of protesters took to the streets in the weeks that followed to demand tougher action.

Four days later, a British woman in Agra jumped from a second-floor hotel room when she feared the manager was trying to break in, while in another case a Swiss man was held at gunpoint while his wife was gang-raped in Madhya Pradesh.

 “From December 2012 onwards the inflows of women foreign tourists to the country have gone down by 35 percent and the overall tourism being affected by 25 percent,” said Assocham’s secretary general, DS Rawat, in a press release.

Tour operators have reported that canceled bookings -- “especially from women” -- were mostly from the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia, Rawat said.

He said the string of high-profile sex crimes “raised concerns about the safety of female travelers to the country,” adding that the cases attracted “international attention.”

He called on his country to strengthen security at major tourist spots, warning that India’s unsavory reputation could inflict “long-term” damage on its $17 billion annual tourism revenues.

About 6.6 million international tourists visited India last year, India’s tourism ministry estimates.

In the Dec. 16 attack, police say the gang lured the 23-year-old victim onto a bus in New Delhi, where they repeatedly raped and assaulted her with a metal bar before throwing her bleeding onto a highway. She died of internal injuries two weeks later.

Related:

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India gang-rape victim's father: Hang the 'monsters' responsible

Authorities: Alleged ringleader in India gang rape hangs himself

Manan Vatsyayana / AFP - Getty Images

Media representatives surround an ambulance as it leaves the main entrance of Tihar Jail in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI -- The alleged ringleader in the gang-rape and death of a young Indian woman in December hanged himself in jail on Monday, officials said, a dramatic twist in a case that has provoked outrage across India.

Ram Singh's lawyer said his client had been composed and calm when he spoke to him on Friday and that there were other inmates in his cell in New Delhi's Tihar jail, raising questions about whether it was a suicide and how it could have gone unnoticed by staff in India's highest security prison.

The lawyer and a prison official said Singh had not been on suicide watch.

Police have described Singh as the ringleader of five men and a juvenile on trial for the December 16 attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist on a bus in the Indian capital. Singh was driving the bus.

All six accused have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder.

The assault triggered nationwide protests, a toughening of rape laws and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India.

Tihar prison authorities ordered a magisterial inquiry after Singh was found hanging in his cell at around 5 a.m. (7 p.m. ET Sunday), prison spokesman Sunil Gupta said.

Singh's lawyer, V.K. Anand, told Reuters that his client did not appear to be distressed when he spoke to him on Friday.

"I believe he was satisfied with the way the trial was proceeding because we had a very strong case against the prosecution's claims," he said.

"This is not suicide, this is something else. I know he had a few complaints of jail authorities torturing him, but nothing that would make him take his own life. We can't rule out foul play. Nothing is adding up," he said.

Manish Swarup / AP

The mother of Ram Singh cries as she speaks to journalists inside the family's home in New Delhi on Monday.

Anand has previously always denied that his client was being maltreated in prison. He did not elaborate on the "torture".

Singh had been kept in a cell with other inmates, he said.

A former director of the jail, Kiran Bedi, said Singh should have been kept isolated from the main prison population.

The trial of the five adult men started last month while the juvenile's trial began last week. Ram Singh's brother Mukesh Singh, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar are the other men on trial.

Under Indian law, the juvenile cannot be named.

The attack generated headlines around the world, but the case has since largely disappeared from public view, in large part because authorities have barred reporting on the trial, which was due to resume in a fast-track court on Monday.

Police allege the six attacked the woman and a male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching a movie on December 16. The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road.

The woman died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.

The police report used to charge the accused draws a picture of Ram Singh as the ringleader. On the night of December 16, the accused gathered at his house for dinner, where he came up with the plan of taking the bus out to look for a victim to rape, the report said.

The police say they found him sitting in the blood-stained school bus, wearing a bloodied T-shirt, the morning after the crime. A DNA test revealed that the blood belonged to the rape victim, the report said.

Related:

5 accused men plead not guilty in India gang rape

India gang-rape victim's father: Hang the 'monsters' responsible

India gang-rape victim dies in hospital; case focuses attention on sexual violence

This story was originally published on Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:22 PM EDT

NEW DELHI - The trial of five men charged with gang-raping and murdering a young woman on a bus in New Delhi opened on Tuesday with closed-door testimony from her male friend who appeared at court in a wheelchair, still bearing the scars of injuries from the attack.

Anindito Mukherjee / EPA

A Delhi police van arrives at the Delhi Saket court in New Delhi, India, Tuesday.

The 28-year-old software engineer, who may not be identified, is the prosecution's star witness in a case that has triggered nationwide protests, an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India and tougher anti-rape laws.

The five accused are Vinay Sharma, a gym assistant, Ram Singh, the bus driver, his brother Mukesh Singh, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar.

They have pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and murder. A sixth accused is being tried separately as a juvenile.

Police allege the six attacked the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her friend on the bus as the couple returned home from watching a movie on Dec. 16.

The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road.

The woman died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.

Victim's father: Hang them
As the trial got under way, the victim's father made a surprise appearance at a news conference organized by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to call for his daughter's attackers to be hanged.

At one stage, the friend, defense lawyers and some policemen moved from the courtroom to a courtyard where the bus on which police say the attack took place was parked.

Journalists saw some of them board the vehicle, which was white with tinted windows and orange curtains. Above the windshield was painted "Praise the Goddess" in Hindi.

The victim's friend was not seen boarding the bus. The friend's father said later it was the second time his son had seen the bus since the attack.

In his statement to police after the assault, the friend said their attackers had asked "where are you going with a girl so late at night?" before launching a furious assault in which he was beaten with a metal rod and his clothes ripped off.

While he was being beaten, the woman was repeatedly raped, he said, according to a police charge sheet seen by Reuters.

The prosecution says articles stolen from the couple, including their cellphones, rings and debit cards were found in raids conducted on the homes of the accused. DNA evidence and bloodstained clothes also form part of their case.

Defense lawyers say they will highlight what they say are discrepancies in the account given by the victim's friend.

The five men are being tried in a special fast-track court opposite the shopping mall where the victim and her friend went to watch the film "Life of Pi" before boarding the bus.

About 30 policemen were deployed outside the courtroom on Tuesday as the five accused arrived wearing scarves or handkerchiefs to mask their faces. 

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Video: Father of rape victim speaks about her dreams, final days

Attorney in gang rape case blames victim

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Richa Singh, 24, who works for an online travel portal, says, "women are seen as objects in this city, it doesn't matter what I wear, I still get stared at by men on the streets."

Since the death of a medical student who was gang raped on a bus in New Delhi the issue of women's security has been under the spotlight as never before in India. Mansi Thapliyal, a female Indian photographer working for Reuters, interviewed a variety of women in New Delhi to find out how they feel about their safety since the rape.

Reactions were strong and wide ranging, from women who now feel they need to arm themselves or take self-defense classes, to others who are scared to go out alone at night.

"My city is known as the so-called rape capital of the country," Thapliyal wrote in a blog post on Reuters.com. "They say it’s unsafe, it’s dangerous, and it’s full of wolves looking to hunt you down." Read her entire blog post on Reuters.com.

Thapliyal decided to focus her camera on the city’s women to find what they think about their security, and how they are protecting themselves. Below is a collection of her photos shot earlier this month, and made available to NBC News today. 

Aanchal Sukhija, 19, studying fashion media communication, said that whenever she hires an auto rickshaw she has to send a short message to her father giving details of the auto in order to feel secure.

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Aanchal Sukhija waits for an auto rickshaw outside a metro station in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Nalini Bharatwaj, 37, chairperson of a management institute, says "Half of the time I am alone with my children and sometimes I have to travel late at night from work. It's enough to shut up anyone trying to molest me or even pass a comment if I flaunt my gun." 

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Nalini Bharatwaj, holds a gun while posing in her office in New Delhi.

Deepshikha Bharadwaj, 24, who works for an advertising agency, has posted the notice that reads, 'Sorry I am not staying late now,' on her desk and said she wanted to send a message to her colleagues that she is not going to work late in the office anymore.

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Deepshikha Bharadwaj stands inside an elevator in her office on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Sweety, 22,a student, travels four hours every day from her village to the city to learn karate and taekwondo. She said, "boys in my village are scared to tease me after I beat up one boy who was passing lewd comments on me."

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Sweety, takes a self defense class in New Delhi.

Simrat, 24, who works for a non-profit arts organization, said, “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."

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Simrat travels in the women's compartment of a metro in New Delhi.

Chandani, 22, who works as a cab driver for a social enterprise which claims to provide safe and secure cab services for women driven by women, said demand for their cabs has increased.

 "I am doing a very unconventional job for women,” she said. “Given that I do night shifts, I carry pepper spray bottle and I'm trained in self-defense. Initially I faced a lot of problems but driving cabs at night has helped me to overcome my fears.”

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Chandani sits inside her car on a street in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI -- Three of the men accused of raping and murdering an Indian student in a moving bus will plead not guilty to the charges, their lawyer said on Wednesday, citing lapses in the police investigation.

Five men have been charged for the assault on the woman in a case that has provoked such outrage that lawyers in the district where the case is being heard have refused to defend the men.

Manohar Lal Sharma, who will represent the bus driver and the main accused, his brother and another man, said the case must go to trial so that the evidence police have presented can be tested in court.

"We are only hearing what the police are saying. This is manipulated evidence. It's all on the basis of hearsay and presumption," said Sharma.

It is not yet known if two other accused men have a lawyer, while a sixth accused will be tried separately because he is a minor.

The five defendants are scheduled to appear at another pre-trial hearing on Thursday that is expected to result in the case being sent to a special "fast-track" court. Indian courts are notoriously slow, with some cases dragging on for decades. 

Authorities have charged the men with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty. The crime caused nationwide outrage, leading to massive protests.

Blood stains
A sixth suspect, who is 17 years old, is expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said last week that a DNA test confirmed that the blood of the victim matched blood stains found on the clothes of all the accused.

On Sunday, two of the defendants offered to become "approvers," or informers against the others, according to reporters present at the hearing. The two were presumably seeking lighter sentences.

The companion of the student recounted in a television interview last week how the pair was attacked for 2 1/2 hours on a New Delhi bus before being thrown on the side of the road, where passersby ignored them and police debated jurisdiction issues before helping them. The student died at a Singapore hospital weeks after the Dec. 16 attack.

The attack has led to calls for tougher rape laws and reforms of a police culture that often blames rape victims and refuses to file charges against accused attackers. The nation's top law enforcement official said the country needs to crack down on crimes against women.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related stories from NBC News:

• India gang-rape victim's father: Hang the 'monsters' responsible
• 'Nobody helped us for an hour,' Indian rape witness says

NEW DELHI -- The father of a young Indian woman whose gang rape aboard a bus and subsequent death sparked public outrage has demanded that those responsible be hanged.

The Dec. 16 attack on the 23-year-old physiotherapy student and a male companion provoked furious protests demanding greater protection for women and fueled a nationwide debate about the prevalence of sexual crimes in India, where a rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.

The incident has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, forced to keep quiet and discouraged from going to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Police often refuse to accept complaints from rape victims, and the rare prosecutions that reach courts can drag on for years.

The woman died on Saturday from massive internal injuries at a hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for treatment.

Rape and murder charges were filed Thursday against five men accused in the gang rape. Police say they plan to push for the death penalty in the case.

A sixth suspect was listed as 17 and was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

The father of the woman said he backed the chorus of calls for those responsible to be executed.

"The whole country is demanding that these monsters be hanged. I am with them," the father told reporters in his home village of Mandwara Kalan in Uttar Pradesh state.

The woman has not been identified, nor have members of her family, in accordance with Indian law.

The woman was born in the village, but the family soon moved to the capital, New Delhi.

The father added that he was demanding a change in the law to allow for the execution of juveniles.

PhotoBlog: India's ruling party considers tough punishments for sex crimes

The studious, ambitious young woman was determined to improve life in her village, the father said.

"She said, 'Papa, the place of your birth is very backward. If I become a doctor I will first improve life in the village,'" the father said.

Days of protests in New Delhi and other cities followed the attack. Many of the protesters have been students, infuriated by what they see as the failure of the government to protect women.

The case against the five accused is due to be processed by a new, fast-track chamber set up in response to the crime. 

Hanging is allowed only in the "rarest of rare" cases under Indian law. It was used for the first time in eight years in November when the lone surviving gunman from a 2008 militant attack on Mumbai, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, was executed.

The pair were attacked for hours as the bus drove through the city, even passing through police checkpoints during the assault. They were eventually dumped naked on the side of the road. The woman was assaulted with an iron bar.

Police have said the accused have admitted to torturing and raping the student "to teach her a lesson."

She fought back and bit three of them, a police source told Reuters, and the bite marks are part of the evidence against them.

After the victim was thrown from the private bus, the driver tried to run her over, but she was pulled away by her companion, a senior police official told Reuters.

'Sacrificed'
Police have prepared a dossier of evidence and charges against the accused believed to run to 1,000 pages, including testimony from the woman's friend who survived the attack on the bus and a man who said he was robbed by the same gang prior to the rape.

The woman's father told reporters he supported a proposal to name new legislation on sex crimes in honor of his daughter.

"She is the one who has been sacrificed," he said.

The government has set up two panels headed by retired judges to recommend measures to ensure women's safety. One of the panels, due to make recommendations later this month, has received some 17,000 suggestions from the public, media reported.

The district court where the charges are due to be heard is expected to assign a defense lawyer for the five men after the bar association said none of its members were willing to represent them.

Lawyers in black robes protested outside the court on Thursday, demanding the judicial system act faster against rape.

Prakash Singh / AFP - Getty Images

Activists hold placards during a protest at Saket District Court in New Delhi on Thursday.

"We want the laws to be amended in such a stringent way that before a person even thinks of touching a girl, he should feel chills down his spine," protesting lawyer Suman Lata Katiyal said.

Attitudes by Indians toward rape are so entrenched that even politicians and opinion-makers have often suggested that women should not go out at night or wear clothes that might be seen as provocative.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Women hold placards as they join others in a march past a metro station undergoing construction during a rally organized by Delhi's chief minister protesting for justice and security for women, in New Delhi on Jan. 2. The ashes of the Indian student who died after being gang-raped were scattered in the Ganges river on Tuesday as reports of more attacks stoked a growing national debate on violence against women. The death of the 23-year-old woman, who has not been named, prompted street protests across India, international outrage and promises from the government of tougher punishments for offenders.

Marchers protested in New Delhi on Wednesday as the horrific gang rape and murder of a student continued to reverberate across India. The 23 year old victim's family said that they would not rest until her killers are hanged. Police are finalizing their investigation before charges are laid against the suspects this week. The ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, including chemical castration, and authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed "India's rape capital."

-- Agence France-Presse

Dar Yasin / AP

Delhi's chief minister, center, and others offer prayers for a gang rape victim, at Mahatma Gandhi memorial, in New Delhi, India, Jan. 2.

Raveendran / AFP - Getty Images

Indian protesters shout anti-government slogans during a protest against rape in New Delhi on Jan. 2. The family of an Indian gang rape victim said that they would not rest until her killers are hanged as police finalized their investigation before charges are laid against the suspects this week. The ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, including chemical castration, and authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed "India's rape capital."

Anindito Mukherjee / EPA

A child carries placards that contain pro-women slogans at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, Rajghat, during a peace prayer meeting in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 2. The event was organized by the Delhi Government, Delhi Commission for Women to pay homage to the 23 year old Delhi gang rape victim and for women safety.

Dar Yasin / AP

Female Indian paramilitary soldiers watch as Indian women march to mourn the death of a gang rape victim in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 2. India's top court said it will decide whether to suspend lawmakers facing sexual assault charges as thousands of women gathered at the memorial to independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi to demand stronger protection for their safety.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Police try to temper outrage over gang rape
• Protesters clash with police in India over gang rape of medical student
• Tear gas used to quell India gang-rape protests
• Fury, anguish after hours-long gang-rape in India