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Sexual harassment in public spaces in India: Victimization and offending patterns

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The research in this chapter aims to examine the extent of sexual harassment (SH) in public spaces post-Nirbhaya, an event that occurred in Delhi, India, in 2012, with a focus on victims, self-reported behaviors of offenders, and offenders’ male friends. More specifically, we examine the concordance rates between victims and offenders as well as offenders and their male friends’ SH offending patterns. Findings from a survey of 766 females and 629 males in the Delhi National Capital Territory suggest that 61 percent of women experienced one or more forms of sexual harassment, and 51 percent of men reported having engaged in one or more forms of these behaviors. Findings also suggest that although over 95 percent of the victims and offenders are aware of the Nirbhaya incident, more than half of them are not aware of the existence of laws that punish sexual harassment. Close to two-thirds do not believe the effectiveness of these laws and their enforcement. Policy implications are discussed and suggested, drawing from the findings of this research.
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12 Sexual harassment in public
spaces in India
Victimization and offending patterns
Mahesh K. Nalla
12.1 Introduction
Over the past decade, sexual harassment (SH) of women in public spaces as a
form of violence against women has received considerable attention in both devel-
oping and developed countries. SH, an improper behavior that has a sexual
dimension and intonations includes nonverbal, verbal, and physical actions,
mostly by males, toward females at any time of the day or night (Neupane &
Chesney-Lind, 2014; Madan & Nalla, 2016). By “sexual harassment in public
spaces” we mean forms of SH provocations that are not limited to what occurs on
public streets, parks, and marketplaces but includes public transport spaces such as
buses, bus-stops, trains and train stations, and other public transit spaces.
India, like many other countries, is no exception to the occurrence of SH
(Jagori & UN Women, 2011). SH is widespread, particularly in mega-cities
such as Delhi, where, for over 98 percent of the population, public transport
(including taxis and auto-rickshaws) is the only means to get to work, school, or
attend to family matters (Madan & Nalla, 2016). The insecurities of urban
spaces and SH in public spaces drew worldwide attention following an event
that occurred in 2012 in Delhi, India. A 23-year-old woman was sexually har-
assed in a moving public bus by a group of young men, including the driver and
the conductor. This harassment escalated to the victim being beaten-up, gang
raped, and brutally tortured, resulting in her death. This incident, which later
came to be referred to as Nirbhaya (the fearless, who tried to ght off the six
offenders) drew thousands of protestors—facilitated through social media and
the media—who spilled into the streets all over the country demanding govern-
ment action to this extremely pervasive and much neglected form of violence
against women.
While there is a smattering of literature on the subject in India, most of the
prior work focuses on SH victimization in public spaces, and we found very
little work that focuses on offenders. The aim of the current research is to
examine the extent of sexual harassment in public spaces in India with a focus
on victimization as well as the self-reported behaviors of offenders. Additionally,
we examine the congruence between reported victimization rates and self-reported
offending patterns as well as SH offending patterns of their male friends.
Sexual harassment in India 233
12.2 Theoretical considerations
For many developing countries, particularly in South Asia, SH in public spaces
remains a concern because of traditional cultures and religions that have a
bearing on women’s place in public spaces (Niaz, 2003). Prior research, which
is grounded in the framework of the patriarchy, identies structural forces that
inuence male dominance and masculinity, which in turn shape gender roles in
social and economic spheres (Acker, 1992; Hearn & Parkin, 2001). MacKinnon
(1979), drawing on observations based on socio-cultural perspectives, noted
that SH occurred in societies with unequal power distance and where sexual
requirements are imposed on the “weaker” party, in this instance, women. The
work of MacKinnon (1979) and others (e.g., Uggen & Blackstone, 2004) sug-
gests that men and women are socialized differently with varying expectations
among genders. For instance, men are stereotypically expected to pursue qual-
ities of domination, leadership, and sexual initiative while women are expected
to be submissive and nurturing, resulting in men often pursuing women to gain
power and self-interest (Luthar & Luthar, 2007).
Other competing theoretical perspectives that shed light on and are relevant
to SH victimization relate to work advanced by Cohen and Felson (1979),
which suggests that victimization is likely to be higher when people remove
themselves from their routine activities. This could lead people (in this case,
women) to have diminished guardianship, creating more opportunities for
motivated offenders. Applying these principles to SH, Ceccato (2014) observed
that the likelihood of SH victimization occurring increases when a potential
victim intersects with a motivated offender in the absence of or decreased vigil-
ance. Victimization is often interconnected to personal and lifestyle characteris-
tics, many of which are unavoidable, such as going to school, work, and
running errands (shopping, visiting family, etc.) (Tseloni & Pease, 2004). Fur-
thermore, in countries such as India, which is the second-largest producer of
fruits and vegetables in the world, women represent nearly 50 percent of those
employed in the supply chain of fruit, vegetables, fresh produce markets and
small businesses. This creates greater opportunities for them to be in public
spaces (Gurung, 2006). For many of these women, public transportation is the
only means to get around, and it is often inadequate relative to the population,
resulting in overcrowding and thus creating greater vulnerability to women
commuters (Parikh, 2018).
Prior research on SH in public spaces in India
A number of studies on SH of women in public spaces in both developed
(Macmillan, Nierobisz, & Welsh, 2000) and developing countries (for a review
see Madan & Nalla, 2016; Ceccato & Paz, 2017) have addressed gender viol-
ence in public spaces. In India, in the past decade, many studies have addressed
gender violence specically related to sexual harassment. There were a few
researchers who addressed women’s safety and how they negotiate everyday
234 Mahesh K. Nalla
risks in public spaces in metro cities such as Mumbai (Phadke, 2005; Bharucha &
Khatri, 2018), Kolkota (Sur, 2014), Chennai (Natarajan, 2016) and other
smaller cities in northeastern India (Bhattacharyya, 2016). The ndings from
these studies show that an overwhelming percentage of the respondents
reported public spaces as being unsafe due to fear of crime and victimization,
with specically fear of sexual harassment being the most signicant factor.
These ndings highlight women’s safety and fear of sexual violence in their
everyday life, a nding echoed in Western research (Macmillan et al., 2000).
One of the earliest surveys examining the incidence of SH in public spaces
(buses) prior to the Nirbhaya incident was conducted in the South Indian city
of Chennai with a small sample of respondents (N = 100) (Chockalingam &
Vijaya, 2008). Findings showed a high incidence of female victimization in the
age group of 15–35 who had experienced unwanted touching and groping. The
offenders were described by their victims to be between 35 and 70 years old,
well-dressed and seemingly educated, and targeting women who wore non-
traditional South Indian clothes.
One of the most systematic studies done to assess SH victimization in public
spaces in Delhi in 2010 (N = 5,000) highlighted the various forms of sexual har-
assment women face while in public spaces such as markets, bus terminals and
roadsides (Jagori & UN Women, 2011). The report found that nearly 66
percent of women and girls experience SH in public spaces with 51.4 percent
reporting public transport buses as the most common public spaces where
maximum sexual harassment occurs. This nding is not surprising given that, in
metro cities such as Mumbai, an estimated 88 percent of the residents rely on
public buses and metros, and in Delhi 43 percent of residential households
rely on public transport (Badami & Haider, 2007). The inadequate public
transport services in India’s cities contribute to overcrowded situations (Pucher,
Korattyswaroopam, & Ittyerah, 2004) making it easier for offenders to participate
and escape detection after committing SH.
Despite the signicance of the Nirbhaya incident in 2012, very few studies
have since been conducted in India that addressed this issue. One of the earliest
studies following Nirbhaya was a study conducted with a small convenient
snowball sample of 20 women, aged 18 to 30 years, from the middle and
upper-middle classes in Delhi (Dhillon & Bakaya, 2014). Interviews with
respondents on their experiences in the city revealed that between 50 percent
and 100 percent reported some form of SH as they commuted to work or
walked to the market, to a movie theater, or, in essence, used public spaces.
One of the few large-scale systematic research studies was conducted in Delhi
Metro area in 2014, drawing a sample of 1,387 males and females by employing
a multistage cluster and quota sampling technique (Madan & Nalla, 2016). The
ndings show that public transport was the main mode of transportation for
nearly 99 percent of males and females. Compared with males (50.9 percent),
females (26.8 percent) felt unsafe in public spaces and over half the women
in the sample reported being a victim (57.6 percent) of SH or knew a friend
or family member who was a victim (48.3 percent) in the last 12 months
Sexual harassment in India 235
(Madan & Nalla, 2016). Overall, while there is a general congruence between
genders in terms of seriousness of 20 SH behaviors, the differences, however
minor, were statistically signicant with women rating them as more serious
(Madan & Nalla, 2016).
A more recent study with a sample of 1,600 respondents who travel by
public buses, drawn from multiple cities in India, reported that 554 (34.9
percent) reported sexual harassment with groping being the most frequent,
more often than even catcalls and sexually-laced comments (Lea, D’Silva, &
Asok, 2017). A survey of 300 women in Mumbai, selected randomly from
among those walking in the market areas and to and from metro stations,
revealed that 77.2 percent experienced SH in the form of lewd comments, cat-
calls, and insinuating songs. Additionally, 30 percent reported stalking, 29
percent reported being groped, and 7 percent molested (Bharucha & Khatri,
2018). Using a convenient but systematic sample of 200 female students from
two women’s colleges in Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, another study
assessed the incidence and frequency of SH victimization experienced in a
variety of modes of transportation, which included buses, taxi-cabs, three-
wheeled min-cabs (Tripathi, Borrion & Belur, 2017). Findings from this study
conrmed ndings from prior research (Madan & Nalla, 2016) in that of all
forms of public transportation, buses were considered the least secure and 100
percent of the respondents indicated that they were either personally a victim or
witnessed a physical or verbal form of SH. Given that data are from college stu-
dents, the ndings of the Lucknow study, as in other studies (Dhillon &
Bakaya, 2014; Neupane & Chesney-Lind, 2014), nds young women at greater
risk of SH. Findings from the central Indian city of Bhopal reveal that 88
percent of women were harassed while using public transport and 40 percent
reported facing harassment on a regular basis (Bhatt, Menon, & Khan, 2018).
Interestingly, however, 100 percent of public bus drivers and conductors did
not believe it was a prevalent issue and another 30 percent believe that women
were equally responsible for SH perpetrated against them (Bhatt, et al., 2018).
Unlike serious sexual offenses such as rape, which has the propensity to occur
more frequently among acquaintances and other non-strangers, SH is more pre-
valent among strangers (Macmillan et al., 2000). Among the reasons for the
causes of SH, the respondents felt that migrant men from small towns are not
only patriarchal but “awed” by Delhi women who are independent and travel
alone, prompting men to demean or sexually harass women to put them down
(Dhillon & Bakaya, 2014). The reasons attributed by female victims of SH for
men engaging in SH were slightly different in another study from a Southern
Metro city of Chennai. Natarajan (2016, p. 6) noted that college students
attributed the reasons to patriarchy (“male domination,” “discrimination,”
“cultural values”), differential (“socialization of boys and girls”) and situational
(“alcohol,” “boredom,” “more women seeking education and employment”
and “lack of bystander intervention”) reasons. Among the reasons attributed to
males’ behavior for this were a patriarchal mindset (77 percent), absence of fear
of the law (57 percent), lack of effective police patrol (45 percent), poor street
236 Mahesh K. Nalla
lighting (13 percent), and women’s choice of apparel (11 percent). These nd-
ings are similar to other prior studies (Natarajan, 2016).
In summary, four major themes emerge from prior research. The rst theme
relates to women’s fear of public spaces and the associated fear of victimization.
The second thread relates to the high incidence and prevalence of victimization
among younger women of various forms of SH occurring in a variety of public
spaces. The third relates to gender differences in perceived seriousness of SH.
The nal theme relates to victims’ perceptions of why males engage in SH.
While this research adds to our understanding of SH prior research, with the
exception of a couple of studies, ndings are often drawn from sample sizes
employing a convenient sampling framework with a focus exclusively on the
incidence of SH in general with a limited focus on victims. This exploratory
research therefore attempts to contribute to the sparse literature on SH with
greater attention to offenders’ self-reported participation in SH behaviors. More
specically, we examine (1) the gender differences in perceptions of imagery of
what constitutes SH; (2) a comparison of the awareness of SH laws and their
enforcement between victims and offenders; (3) congruence in the rates of reported
female victimization of SH and males’ self-reported offending; and, (4) congruence
between self-reported offending and male friends’ participation in SH.
12.3 Current study
Context
In India, street sexual harassment is euphemistically referred to as “eve-teasing”, a
long recognized social problem and a reference that trivializes the seriousness of
various forms of offensive behaviors against women. This phrase interestingly,
however, does not appear in any Penal Codes in India. Worse, such behaviors are
not taken seriously, and are accepted as a minor nuisance and a lighthearted ritual
associated with young men’s transition to adulthood. Others suggest that these
behaviors are often brushed off by men as jocular and lighthearted practices that
are validated culturally across the country (Bhattacharyya, 2015).
Delhi, the National Capital Territory (NCT), India, with over 18 million
people is the fth most populous city in the world. Delhi has the highest
recorded crime compared with all other geographic distributions in India
according to the 2016 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report (2017)
and is considered one of the most unsafe cities in the world (Gaynair, 2013).
Delhi NCT also reported the highest rate of crimes against women for rape and
other sexual offenses per 100,000 women in India (86.96 compared to a
national average of 22.16) (National Crime Records Bureau, 2015, p. 24).
Among crimes against women, Delhi also has the distinction of highest rate of
crimes per 100,000 relating to sexual harassment under the categories of Insult
to the modesty of women (15.1 vs. 1.6 national average), and Assault on women
with intent to outrage her modesty (47.9 vs. 13.7 national average) (National
Crime Records Bureau, 2015, p.32).
Sexual harassment in India 237
Data and method
Data for the study were drawn from a larger study conducted in 2014.
Drawing from prior work (Jagori & UN Women, 2011; Neupane & Chesney-
Lind, 2014), and contextualizing it to the local cultural setting, we constructed
a survey questionnaire (bilingual, English and Hindi) drawing from various
themes pertaining to sexual harassment in public spaces. A total of 20 sexual
harassment behaviors were identied that fell into three broad categories (listed
in Table 12.3, later): nonverbal, verbal, physical. In addition, all of these
behaviors are cited as examples in the Indian Penal Code under various sections
noted above. All respondents (both male and female) were asked to rate the
seriousness of behaviors constituting sexual harassment on a seven-point scale
(0 = not at all serious, 1 = not serious, 2 = less serious, 3 = neutral, 4 = somewhat
serious, 5 = serious, 6 = very serious).
Sample
Using multistage cluster and quota sampling strategies, we drew between
250 and 275 respondents from each of the ve primary zones (North, East,
West, South and Central) in Delhi, the capital city of India. Data collection
for this study lasted nearly 60 days (pencil and paper method) and resulted
in a total of 1,387 respondents (male = 621/45 percent; female = 766/55
percent). The demographic breakdown of the respondents is presented in
Table 12.1.
The educational background of victims and offenders was fairly evenly dis-
tributed: primary = 23.3 percent vs. 23.6 percent; secondary = 24.8 percent vs.
22.4 percent; high school = 22 percent vs. 29 percent; and, college and
higher = 30.5 percent vs. 24.8 percent. A similar distribution was apparent in
monthly income levels (1 US$ = Indian Rupees ~ 72), for victims and offend-
ers: those earning less than 10,000 = 54.8 percent vs. 47.4 percent; 10,001 to
25,000 = 23.5 percent vs. 33.9 percent; and, those earning 25,001 and
more = 21.7 percent vs. 17.7 percent. Nearly 77 percent of the victims and 65
percent of the offenders were ever married (includes currently married or
married in the past).
Regarding place of residence, 92.9 percent out of 766 females live in Delhi.
Among males, 87.8 percent of the 621 live Delhi. 93.8 percent of victims and
87.2 percent of offenders live in Delhi. However, relative to the number of
victims (6.2 percent) who live on the fringes of the city (e.g., Noida,
Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and Faridabad), there were nearly twice as many offenders
(12.8 percent) from outside Delhi. Given the small number of N for particip-
ants living outside Delhi, these percentages appear exaggerated.
The primary purpose of the use of public transportation for the majority of
victims (75 percent) compared with offenders (39.7 percent) was visiting
friends, family and shopping. A majority of the offenders are employed
(78 percent). However, 43.1 percent of offenders, compared with 5.8 percent
victims use public transportation for work or business. This suggests that a
238 Mahesh K. Nalla
Table 12.1 Descriptive statistics of victims (N = 467, 60.7%) and offenders (N = 317)
Variables Categories %* victims %* offenders
Education
1 = Primary education 22.8 23.6
2 = Secondary education 24.8 22.4
3 = High school 22.0 29.0
4 = College and above 30.5 24.8
Income (per month, in INR)
1 = Less than 10,000 54.8 47.4
2 = 10,001–25,000 23.5 33.9
3 = 25,001 and above 21.7 17.7
Relationship status
1 = Never married 22.6 34.9
2 = Ever married 77.4 65.1
Place of residence
1 = Delhi 93.8 87.2
2 = Around Delhi** 6.2 12.8
Public transport—purpose
1 = Visit friends/family/shopping 75.0 39.7
2 = School/college 16.2 17.7
3 = Work/business 5.8 43.1
4 = Other 3.2 3.7
Notes
* Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
** Includes Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and Faridabad.
majority of offenders who harass women are employees who commute to and
from work.
12.4 Imagery of sexual harassment
One of the questions in the survey related to capturing respondents’ imagery of
behaviors that constitute SH. All females (N = 766) and males (N = 621) wer e
asked to describe what sexual harassment means to them, to which 1,201 and
1,016 comments were received from females and males respectively. These
responses were coded to group comments that t into broader themes and cate-
gories (Figure 12.1). The most common imagery of SH for both females
(28.1percent) and males (26.7 percent) is sexual teasing/jokes and comments,
suggesting a close resemblance between the two groups of respondents. An inter-
esting imagery that was reported by both females and males are “forceful sexual
relations/rape,” which is a more violent form of sexual crime, and “forceful
attempt to kiss/have sex”. Although, comparatively, more females’ (14.6percent)
compared with males’ (9.3 percent) imagery of SH was described as rape, a
similar disparity in the opposite direction was found for females (13.3percent)
and males (21.6 percent) regarding forceful attempt to kiss/have sex. Together,
Sexual harassment in India 239
Figure 12.1 Percentage comparisons of the imagery of SH for females (N = 766) and
males (N = 621)
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these two categories represented close to a third of all imagery related to sexual
harassment. Nearly twice as many females (13.3 percent) compared with males
(6.5 percent) described unwanted touching and pinching as imagery associated
with SH, while fewer females (8.3 percent) reported sexual gestures representing
SH compared with men (13.3 percent). More women (5 percent) described
stalking as SH experience compared with males (1.4percent) while the numbers
and the gap for genders relating to leaning closely on a female or using abusive
and profane language was rather small. Comments that were undecipherable or
representing similar images noted in the gure were not represented.
12.5 Proles of victims and offenders—age
The average age of the respondents is 36.3 years. The age range for the victims
was 18 to 74 and the youngest age at which a victim rst reported SH experi-
ence was 10 years of age. For offenders, the age range was 18 years to 80 years
old; however, that survey did not have the question regarding the age at rst
time offending in the survey. Description relating to age break down for both
victims and offender is presented in Figure 12.2. The trend lines suggest that
there is a close alignment in spikes and lows for both groups for the ages
around 24 through 50 years.
A closer look at the breakdown of age groups for prevalence of victimization
and offending shows some categories that are more compatible. Twenty-seven
percent of victims and 30.3 percent of the offenders were in the age group of
18 to 25 years. However, an overwhelming majority of 80.7 percent victims and
71.8 percent offenders were 40 years and under. Among the offenders, close to
240 Mahesh K. Nalla
Figure 12.2 Frequency and age distribution of victims and offenders.
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a third were 40 years and above with 12 percent in the age group of 41–50,
6.7 percent in the age group of 51–60. A surprising nding from our data was
that 9.2 percent of offenders were in the age group of 61 and above compared
with only 2.2 percent of victims. Even more interesting is the nding of senior
citizens (N = 11, 3.4 percent) self-reporting as offenders were in the age group
of 70 and 80 years.
Victims/offender views on awareness and
effectiveness of SH laws
A vast majority of the victims (83.5 percent) and offenders (95.8 percent) are
aware of the Nirbhaya event (Figure 12.3). Surprisingly, however, only about
two-fths of the victims (38.1 percent) and offenders (42.2 percent) are aware
of laws that punish SH offenders. Less than a third of victims believe the effec-
tiveness of SH laws (30.8 percent vs. 29.2 percent) or that SH laws are effect-
ively enforced (30.9 percent vs. 33.8 percent). However, the respondents had
more positive views of the role of media in informing citizens about SH (58.5
percent vs. 46.9 percent).
Victimization and self-reported offending
From among the 766 females in the sample, 467 (61 percent) reported one or
more forms of sexual harassment and 425 women (55.5 percent) knew a friend
or family member who was victimized. Among the victims, 325 (42.2 percent)
noted that they were harassed in the last 12 months, of whom a fth were
harassed at least once, 17.4 percent between two and ve times, and 5 percent
Sexual harassment in India 241
six or more times. Seventy-nine percent of these victimizations occurred during
daytime. From among the sample of 621 males, 317 (51.1 percent) reported to
have engaged in one or more forms of sexual harassment. The SH self-reported
offenders noted they know a male friend (N = 389, 62.6 percent) who also
engaged in SH offending.
In Table 12.2, we present the percentage comparisons of victims’ reporting
and self-reported offenders for 20 specic types of SH behaviors. In addition,
for each behavior, we also presented the gap/concordance rates between the
two. The ndings are presented from the highest to lowest percentage of vic-
timization experiences for each SH behavior. The top four forms of SH victimi-
zation are unwanted deliberate touch/pinching (80.9 percent), leaning closely on
a female or pushing loosely/slowly (77.5 percent), standing close or brushing up
against a female (68.2) and whistling (57.4 percent). In contrast, 60.5 percent
of offenders admitted to leaning closely on a female or pushing loosely/slowly
which was the highest percentage of self-reported SH behavior followed by
standing close or brushing up against a female (46.2 percent), whistling (40.9 percent),
and unwanted deliberate touch/pinching (38.4 percent). Compared with self-
reported offending, between a third and half of all victims reported stalking
(44.7 percent vs. 17.1 percent), referring as babe or honey or similar words (42.1
percent vs. 26.7 percent), unwanted sexual looks or gestures (41.3 percent vs. 7.5
percent), or using obscene or abusive language (39.1 percent vs. 9.5 percent).
Among these behaviors, the largest gap or lack of concordance between victim
and offender reports were found for unwanted sexual looks or gestures (33.8 percent),
using obscene or abusive language (29.6 percent), and stalking (27.6 percent). It
is unclear from the data if gaps exist in gender differences for certain types of
non-verbal and verbal SH categories, particularly a behavior such as unwanted
Figure 12.3 Percentage of victims (N = 467) and offenders (N = 317) awareness of SH
laws and their effectiveness.
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KīĞŶĚĞƌƐ;йͿ sŝĐƟŵƐ;йͿ
242 Mahesh K. Nalla
Table 12.2 Comparison of percentage of victimization (N = 467) and self-reported offending
(N = 317) of SH behaviors
Victims (%) Offenders (%) Concordance
rate %
Unwanted deliberate touch/
pinching 80.9 38.4 42.5
Leaning closely on a female or
Pushing loosely/slowly 77.5 60.5 17
Standing close or brushing up
against a female 68.2 46.2 22
Whistling 57.4 40.9 16.5
Stalking/A stranger following you 44.7 17.1 27.6
Referring as a girl babe or
honey or similar words 42.1 26.7 15.4
Unwanted sexual looks or gestures 41.3 7.5 33.8
Using Obscene/Abusive Language 39.1 9.5 29.6
Unwanted sexual teasing jokes
remarks or comments 30.1 11.3 18.8
Kissing sounds howling and
smacking lips at a female 29.3 12.5 16.8
Poking with penis 26.6 6.2 20.4
Sexual comments about the
clothing anatomy or looks 25.8 8.7 17.1
Patting on the buttocks 24.8 4.8 20
Putting hands on the shoulders 23.4 10.3 13.1
Pulling or playing with the hair 19.5 7.6 11.9
Asking personal questions
about sexual life 10.5 10.8 0
Asked/asking for sexual
favor(s) 8.9 5.9 4
Showing pornography/
naked pictures 8.0 3.7 4.3
Exposing genitals/masturbating in
front of the women 3.8 2.5 1.3
sexual looks or gestures as offenders may not be even aware their looks make
women uncomfortable.
In the next categories comprising verbal and physical behaviors, compared
with self-reported offenders, reported victimization of SH ranged from a third
to one-fth of total victimization rates. Among them are unwanted sexual
teasing (30.1 percent vs. 11.3 percent), kissing/howling sounds/smacking lips
(29.2 percent vs. 12.5 percent), poking with penis (26.6 percent vs. 6.2 percent),
sexual comments about clothing/anatomy (25.8 percent vs. 8.7 percent), patting on
buttocks (24.8 percent vs. 4.8 percent), putting hands on shoulders (23.4 percent
vs. 10.3 percent), and pulling/playing with hair (19.5 percent vs. 7.6 percent). Of
these, with the exception of pulling/playing with hair (11.9 percent) and putting
Sexual harassment in India 243
hands on shoulders (13.1 percent), the remaining behaviors had a lower concordance
rates with a gap of 17 to 20 percentage points.
Among the 20 SH behaviors, about 10 percent or fewer victims and offend-
ers reported SH experiences for four types. Among these, a comparison of vic-
timization and self-reported offending numbers show asking personal questions
about sexual life (10.5 percent vs. 10.8 percent), asked/asking for sexual favors
(8.9 percent vs. 5.9 percent), showing pornography/naked pictures (8.0 percent
vs. 3.7 percent), and exposing genitals/masturbating in front of women
(3.8 percent vs. 2.5 percent). Of these behaviors, while the percentage of both
victimization and offending were lower, the concordance rates were higher than
all other forms of SH behaviors. Asking personal questions about sexual life
(–0.3 percent) and exposing genitals/masturbating in front of women
(1.3 percent) had the highest concordance rate while the other two had about
4 percent concordance rate.
A comparison between open-ended responses of imagery of what constitutes
SH behaviors in Figure 12.3 and victimization rates reported in Table 12.1
show a glaring discrepancy for some categories. Though there are many other
responses from the open-ended imagery question that resembles the language
used in the 20 SH behaviors listed in Table 12.2, we picked the six highest per-
centage responses. From among the six, just one category unwanted sexual
teasing had the highest concordance rate for imagery and actual victimization
(28.1 percent vs. 30.1 percent). The remaining ve behaviors have a large gap
in the percentage of imagery and actual victimization and are: unwanted deliber-
ate touch/pinching (13.3 percent vs. 80.9 percent), leaning closely on a female or
pushing loosely/slowly (4.1 percent vs. 77.5 percent), stalking (5 percent vs.
27.6 percent), unwanted sexual looks or gestures (8.3 percent vs. 41.3 percent),
and using obscene or abusive language (2.6 percent vs. 39.1 percent).
12.6 Self-reporting SH offenses versus their male
friends’ SH offenses
In this study we also examine the concordance rates between self-reporting SH
offenders and SH offending patterns of their male friends. Findings are pre-
sented in Table 12.3.
Findings from Table 12.3 show a rather high degree of correspondence
between the self-reported offending patterns and those claimed to have been
perpetrated by their male friends. With the exception of few behaviors (e.g.,
whistling, groping/squeezing breasts, and asking for sexual favors) which had a
gap of 4 to 6 percentage points, the remaining behaviors differed by a margin of
3 percent or less. The greatest concordance between self-reported offending
and offending by a friend was for leaning closely/pushing female, use of
obscene language, patting on the buttocks, and unwanted deliberate touch/
pinching; and exposing genitals/masturbating in front of women. The congru-
ence between self-offending and friend’s offending may be a function of offenders’
perpetration occurring in the company of friend/s.
244 Mahesh K. Nalla
Table 12.3 Comparison of percentage of self-reported offending and offending by their
male friends
Offender (%) Offender’s male
friend (%)
Concordance %
Unwanted deliberate touch/
pinching 38.4 37.4 1.0
Leaning closely/pushing female 60.5 60.4 0.1
Standing close/brushing
up against a female 46.2 49.6 –3.4
Referring as a girl babe or
honey etc. 26.7 24.3 2.4
Whistling 40.9 34.9 6.0
Stalking/following you 17.1 20 –2.9
Asking questions about
sexual life 10.8 14.2 –3.4
Obscene/Abusive Language 9.5 9.9 –0.4
Sexual jokes/teasing jokes
remarks 11.3 14 –2.7
Pulling/playing with hair 7.6 5.7 1.9
Kissing sounds/smacking lips 12.5 10.1 –2.4
Sexual comments on clothing/
anatomy/looks 8.7 12.5 –3.8
Asking for sexual favor(s) 5.9 10.1 –4.2
Sexual looks/gestures 7.5 10.5 –3.0
Putting hands on shoulders 10.3 8.3 2.0
Touching/rubbing/squeezing
breasts 6.2 11.9 –5.7
Showing pornography/naked
pictures 3.7 5.5 –1.8
Poking with penis 6.2 7.1 –0.9
Patting on the buttocks 4.8 4.3 0.5
Exposing genitals/masturbating
in front of women 2.4 3.6 –1.2
12.7 Discussion
In this study, we assessed victimization as well as offending patterns of SH in
public spaces following the Nirbhaya event in 2012 in Delhi, India. One of
the ndings relates to perceived gender differences in the imagery related to
what constitutes sexual harassment. Findings from this study suggests that
imagery of SH for both a majority of offenders (30.9 percent) and victims
(27.9 percent) produced an image of rape and forceful attempt to have sex,
which according to the IPC are violent crimes against women and do not fall
into statutes relating to sexual harassment. This nding may have some
implications to understanding offenders’ attitudes towards SH in general.
That is, for some offenders, the propensity to engage in less serious forms of
Sexual harassment in India 245
sexual violence (e.g., sexual teasing, comments, touching, etc.) may seem less
harmful and more acceptable since they believe they are not engaging in what
they believe is sexual harassment in the form of rape and forceful attempt to
kiss or have sex with a woman. The data in this study does not offer the
opportunity to tease out if such a disconnect between perceptions and actual
behavior of offenders is present. Future research is well worthwhile pursuing if
such a disjunction exists for some offenders.
A second nding from this research suggests that although over 95 percent
of the victims and offenders are aware of Nirbhaya incident, more than half of
them are not aware of the existence of laws that punish sexual harassment and
close to two-thirds do not believe the effectiveness of these laws and their
enforcement. This nding is critical from the perspective of SH prevention
efforts for both victims and offenders. Clearly, government efforts to publicize
the seriousness as well as the legal implications for violating SH laws is critical to
preventing and mitigating these forms of crimes. Only about half of all victims
and offenders believe the media does a good job of informing the public of the
problem of SH. This suggests media outlets have to assume a greater role and
responsibility in educating the larger population of the problem.
A third nding from this study relates to a presence of a wider age range for
both victims and offenders along the age spectrum in comparison to prior
research. For victims, consistent with prior literature, younger women have
greater propensity for being harassed. However, ndings from this study shed
light on the age range of the victims that concentration of higher victimization
rates is in the age group of 26–40 years (53 percent). Overall, nearly 81 percent
of the victims are in the age group of 18 and 40 years with the remainder in the
age group of 41 and 80 years. Interestingly, however, of the latter group nearly
10 percent of all victims are 61 years and above.
Findings regarding self-reporting offenders from this research are perhaps a
major contribution to the literature on SH. In contrast to the stereotype of the
offender being young, good-looking, and well-educated (Natarajan, 2016), our
nding shows a slightly different picture. Offenders’ age groups are well distrib-
uted with about a third under 30 years of age, but, interestingly, 15.9 percent
of all offenders are 51 years and above, stretching well into their 70s. While 96
percent of all offenders heard and are familiar with the Nirbhaya case, they
reported having committed SH. Additionally, although fewer than half of the
offenders (42.2 percent) knew there were punishments associated with SH
offending, fewer than a third believed that neither the SH laws (29.2 percent)
nor SH enforcement of laws (33.8 percent) were effective. These perceptions
may have some impact on their behavior and willingness to engage in SH.
12.8 Limitations and implications for future research
An important nding from this study is that for many of the SH behaviors
included in this study, the concordance rates for victimization and offending is
fairly signicant for many categories, with the exception of behaviors that either
246 Mahesh K. Nalla
require fairly deliberate physical contact or nonverbal behaviors that are obvious
and noticeable (e.g., showing pornography, genitals, or masturbating in front of
a woman). But for many other behaviors, there are considerable gaps or differ-
ences between the two groups. One factor to consider is the infrastructure sur-
rounding mobility and public transport facilities in cities such as Delhi, which is
woefully inadequate for the city’s population size, and the consequences these
factors have on women’s experiences. Many of the behaviors recognized as SH in
public spaces listed in research do not lend themselves to being convenient for ling
formal complaints. For instance, SH behaviors in public spaces such as unwanted
sexual comments or remarks about clothing or anatomy or leaning closely or
pushing against a woman in crowded situations (a quick Google search for images
of crowded buses in India will offer an imagery and context) can be vague and
leaves no evidence. The researchers traveled in public buses to gain rst-hand experi-
ence when the data for the study were gathered in Delhi in 2014. Often, there are
long lines at public bus stops and metro stations most all day. When buses arrive at a
bus stop, they are tightly packed and leaning like sardines and leaning to one side
with the weight of the people hanging on to any little foothold they can nd,
leaving no room for people to either get out or get in. Passengers are often reluctant
to move to let people out for fear of losing their spot on the bus as new passengers
push in to nd any standing room that is available. The conditions are often chaotic
with every passenger’s single-minded goal being to board the bus. Given these phys-
ical conditions, identifying the perpetrator or the motive for some of the SH behav-
iors in public spaces becomes complicated. These factors are important precursors
for researchers and policymakers to pursue in efforts to ameliorate SH problems.
Another area for possible future direction in research relates to patterns of
offending. The offending patterns of the self and male friends are closely
aligned, suggesting a couple of possibilities. The rst is that sexual harassment
occurs in a group context; that is, rather than an offender acting out alone, they
are more likely to perpetrate in groups. The second possibility is that for some
SH behaviors where detection is likely (e.g., touching/squeezing breasts) the
degree of risk associated with detection or confrontation may result in the
offender being more voyeuristic and self-indulgent, resulting in a slighter bigger
margin; that is, relatively less concordance with the offender’s own behavior.
Finally, for some behaviors (e.g., touch/pinching or leaning closely) that occur
in packed, moving buses in Indian cities where entry and exit from buses is dif-
cult, physical contact between humans is virtually impossible to avoid under
such circumstances. Perhaps offenders and victims’ perspectives on similar
behaviors could differ in terms of offending and victimization. Unfortunately,
we do not have the data to draw inferences to these assumptions other than to
consider them as important issues for future research.
12.9 Conclusion and policy implications
Profound issues stemming from globalization and traditional cultural tendencies
have created unfavorable settings for women in public spaces. SH as a specic
Sexual harassment in India 247
form of sexual violence in South Asian countries draws greater attention
because of the disjunction between the prevalence of sexual harassment and the
governments’ inability to counteract such phenomena (Niaz, 2003). Findings
from this research draw attention to two important factors from policy perspec-
tives. The rst relates to mobility and access to quality public transit infrastruc-
ture to create a greater sense of safety and security for women to participate and
contribute to the overall economic and social advancement of the nation. As
evidenced in this study and others, infrastructure can play a large part in the
degree and prevalence of SH (e.g., overcrowded buses). As such, a goal of any
democratic nation should be to demonstrate fair and equal treatment of all its
citizens, including keeping women safe from SH wherever possible.
The second factor relates to the state’s demonstration of its ability to effect-
ively enforce the laws to reach a degree of deterrence in the eyes and minds of
potential offenders. The large number of SH offenders that do not believe the
state has either effective laws or effective enforcement of SH laws speaks
volumes and could increase boldness among perpetrators of violence against
women in public spaces. In addition, the state educational departments could
institute curricular changes to introduce subject matter in schools to educate
and sensitize students to this subject from an early age. Finally, ndings from
this research also point to the importance of media in educating the public
about criminal laws and penalties relating to SH for both potential victims and
potential offenders. Given the large fan following that entertainment and sports
personalities enjoy in India, the media can play a critical role in bringing public
service messages and dedicated news coverage of this form of social problem to
a larger audience.
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... Common examples include unwanted sexual comments, lewd looks, and groping. However, the behaviors associated with SH can be as trivial as name-calling or as severe as rape (Nalla, 2020). ...
... There are several different categorizations of sexual harassment. However, most are based on behavioral traits, such as whether the harassment takes the form of verbal comments, nonverbal cues, or physical actions (e.g., Gruber et al., 1996;Madan & Nalla, 2016;Nalla, 2020;Neupane & Chesney-Lind, 2014;Shibata, 2020;Timmerman & Bajema, 1999). In the current study, we grouped SH into three categories based on its purposes rather than its means of perpetration: unwanted sexual attention, gender harassment, and sexual coercion (Fitzgerald et al., 1988;Fitzgerald et al., 1995;Gelfand et al., 1995). ...
... Last, we reject Hypothesis 7, which proposes that Chinese nationals residing outside mainland China are less tolerant for SH. We find that Chinese nationals residing abroad tend to have higher tolerance of sexual harassment behaviors (specifically unwanted sexual attention) than those in China, which is against the assumption that acculturation to the "liberal" West lowers the individual's acceptance of sexual harassment cultivated in their conservative and patriarchal home countries (e.g., Bejarano et al., 2011;Cortina & Wasti, 2005;Kennedy & Gorzalka, 2002;Nalla, 2020;Tang et al., 1995a, b). However, similar findings are shared by a study of Indian migrants (Rajan et al., 2020), who hold much more conservative gender attitudes than non-migrants irrespective of where they return from. ...
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