New Delhi: Hit your attackers at soft spots like eyes, the adam’s apple or groin, keep pepper spray in your hands while moving in a dimly-lit area, don’t use your fists to attack, use your elbows instead – valuable tips like these were shared here Tuesday during a workshop on women’s safety.

Around 50 women from different walks of life attended the workshop “Women’s Safety and Street Survival Workshop” that was organised by Street Level Awareness Programme (SLAP) in association with an American centre to train them fightback.

“When a woman is attacked, she freezes and doesn’t know how to react. Though we all have surviving instincts, all we need to do is condition them,” Mriganka Dadwal, executive director, SLAP, told IANS.

“It is important for women to accept their vulnerability, but be better prepared to deal with any untoward accident,” she said.

The hour-long session dealt with 3A’s of safety: accept, acknowledge and act.

Elaborated demonstration was given and situations were created where the participants were asked to defend themselves.

By doing this exercise, the women came across their weaknesses and unpreparedness for such incidents.

“Usually one comes with a mind set that such things won’t happen to me. I always wondered how can I use my pepper spray if someone attacks me,” Vaini Mehra, one of the participants, told IANS.

Answer to this question lies in “using the right thing at the right time”.

“When you are entering a dimly-lit parking space, carry the spray in your hand so that you can use it immediately,” said Dadwal.

“At the same time, when you hit an attacker, don’t use your fists because you might end up hurting your knuckles. So the best is to use your elbows and hit at soft zones like eyes and groin,” she said.

Dadwal pointed out that the biggest fear people have with pepper sprays is what if the attacker snatches it from them and backfires. What they don’t know is that most pepper sprays have a range of seven to eight feet (some even range up to 10 feet).