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Holi is meant to be a Hindu festival celebrating the start of spring, but in Delhi it's being used as an excuse for men to harass and sexually assault women in public places.
Traditionally, people throw brightly coloured powder and water balloons at each other on the streets as part of festivities.
But Delhi women have reported being struck with balloons filled with semen and urine.
The head of the city's Commission for Women has described the behaviour as "shocking and shameful", and called for extra police teams to be deployed to protect women during the festival.
"The men seem to get some perverted pleasure from further exacerbating the already-constant apprehension and helplessness women feel on the streets of Delhi," said Suramya Srivastava, a first-year economics student at a Delhi women's college.
For many women in Delhi, their only choice and the frequent advice is to avoid going outside during the multi-day festival.
But women and girls who have to get to work or school, have no choice but to brave the streets.
"It is always the women, the victims at the end of such harassment cases, who are told to take more precautions to be safer," Ms Srivastava said.
Women have posted on social media of the revolting ways in which they're humiliated by men pelting balloons at them.
They say the balloons are often flung from men riding motorbikes and aimed at their breasts, hips or genitals.
"When we are subjected to such scary situations, instead of enjoying the festival, we get the feeling of insecurity," Delhi student Suchandana Patoa said on Facebook.
Women's rights activists are furious.
"Holi has become a day of dread — when the streets are taken over by violent, power-drunk men who see the festival as a licence for sexual harassment," said Kavita Krishnan, who works at the All India Progressive Women's association.
The head of Delhi's Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, said Holi was meant to be a beautiful festival.
"However, the public nature of the festival provides room for miscreants to take advantage of women and girls and harass them," she said.
She's called for more police to be stationed around Delhi to prevent crimes against women during the festival.
Women have taken to social media to express their fear and disgust, and female university students have organised protests to call for more protection and less hooliganism.
New Delhi earned the unfortunate title of "rape capital of the world" after the 2012 gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus.
She died of her injuries.
Sexual violence against women is a common theme in a country where marital rape is not a crime, and where the National Crime Records Bureau has reported an increase in sexual crime against women over several years.
A study published in the International Criminal Justice Review in 2016 found nearly 58 per cent of women interviewed had experienced sexual harassment in a one-year period, with 42 per cent reporting harassment in public places.
Topics: sexual-offences, hinduism, women, india
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