India's 9% women "experienced" rape, 21% physical sexual assault, 38% sexual comments, 79% harassment

A survey of four countries – United Kingdom, Thailand, Brazil and India – has found that nine per cent of city women have “experienced” rape in India, which is equal to a similar assault suffered by women in Thailand. As for the other two countries under survey, UK and Brazil, two and eight per cent respectively said they have “experienced” rape.
The survey, sponsored by Action Aid, a multinational advocacy group, further says that 21 per cent of Indian women complained that they faced “another form of physical sexual assault”. This is against 18 per cent in Thailand, 15 per cent in Brazil and six per cent in UK.

Carried out by YouGov, a UK-based firm, the survey has further found that 79 per cent of women in India and Thailand have experienced “harassment”, as against 86 per cent in Brazil and 74 per cent in UK. Further, 43 per cent of women in India and Thailand experienced “insult/calling names”, as against 39 per cent each in UK and Brazil.
The survey has further found that 44 per cent of women in India have experienced “wolf whistling”, as against 53 per cent in Thailand, 54 per cent in UK, and 77 per cent in Brazil.

Also, 38 per cent of women in India experienced sexual comments, as against 57 per cent in Brazil, 40 per cent in UK and 24 per cent in Thailand. And, finally, 62 per cent of women in India and Thailand experienced “staring”, as against 74 per cent in Brazil and 49 per cent in UK.
In all, the research has found that three in four women have been subjected to harassment and violence in cities across the world.

Action Aid, UK, has described the situation as an "epidemic". The research has been launched ahead of the charity’s International Safe Cities for Women Day, in a bid to tackle the urban violence that women and girls struggle with globally.
Sarah Carson, ActionAid's Women's Rights Campaign Manager, has been quoted as saying: “It is appalling and unacceptable that this is happening in cities around the world…"

She adds, "No matter who she is or where she lives, no woman has to live in fear of violence or harassment in her city.”
Carson further says: “Behind every statistic are real women. Women who have been raped in their homes in the slums of Delhi, women in Brazil who fear the drug traffickers who dominate and control their neighbourhoods, and garment workers in Cambodia and Thailand who are abused and harassed in and around their work place.”

Details of the survey say, in Britain, 43 per cent of women polled said they felt at risk of harassment on city streets and 36 per cent felt at risk travelling on public transport. However, 70 per cent of women in the North East and 72 per cent in London respectively felt at risk of harassment in their cities - both figures are much higher than the average of 67 per cent across the country.

In Brazil, 55 per cent of women, aged between 18 and 24, said that they had been harassed at public or community events.

The survey also shows that 22 per cent of women in Brazil who did not complete secondary school education had been raped, in comparison to two per cent of women with a professional qualification.

Across cities in Thailand older women were also at risk. The survey revealed that 20 per cent of the women aged 55 and over had been raped - almost double the number of rapes among women aged between 18 and 24 (11 per cent).
In North India, according to the survey, 89 per cent of women said they had experienced harassment of some sort, with 50 per cent experiencing unwanted bodily or physical contact of a sexual nature.
---
For data source click HERE

Comments

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

Search This Blog