Sexual harassment at workplace and in educational institutions: A case study of District Srinagar, Kashmir

Women were sexually harassed long before there was a term for it. Women working in homes have long been targets of sexual abuse. Since industrialization, women working in factories and offices have had to endure sexual comments and demands by bosses and coworkers as the price for economic survival. As students, women and girls have been sexual prey to teachers for as long as they have been allowed to be educated. This paper provides an analysis of the magnitude and nature of sexual harassment in Kashmir. It also examines women’s responses to this type of violence. Administering 300 structured and pre-tested interview schedules on women through stratified random sampling, the paper concludes that sexual harassment was rampant, and was happening across the board in educational institutions and offices. Moreover, women’s responses to sexual harassment were more of endurance than of resistance for the fear of double victimisation.


INTRODUCTION
Violence against women is experienced by women of all ages and social classes, all races, religions and nationalities, all over the world.It is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men (Krug et al., 2002).It is the most pervasive violation of human rights in the world today.Its forms are both subtle and blatant and its impact on development profound.But it is so deeply embedded in cultures around the world that it is almost invisible (Charlotte, 1997).Violence against women is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of women's full advancement, and violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men (United Nations, 1993).The United Nations Declaration on Violence against Women provides a basis for defining genderbased violence.According to Article 1 of the Declaration, violence against women is to be understood as: "Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life" (United Nations,1996).
The experience or threat of violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, in all socio-economic and educational classes, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race, religion and culture thus violating and impairing or nullifing the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.Every form of violence threatens all women and limits their ability to make choices about their lives.At a 12-country workshop held in China on women's non formal education, participants were asked to name the worst aspect of being female: fear of male violence was the almost unanimous answer (Heise, 1992).
Acts or threats of violence, whether occurring within the home or in the community, or perpetrated or condoned by the State, instil fear and insecurity in women's lives and are obstacles to the achievement of equality and for development and peace.The fear of violence, including harassment, is a permanent constraint on the mobility of women and limits their access to resources and basic activities.High social, health and economic costs to the individual and society are associated with violence against women.Violence against women impoverishes society economically, politically and culturally, by limiting the active role that women can make in the development of their community.Violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men.
Sexual harassment is one of the forms of sexual exploitation of women that occurs in the workplace or in an educational setting under certain conditions.It is unwanted sexual pressure that one person inflicts upon another.Such behavior is illegal if it creates an environment that is hostile or intimidating, if it interferes with a person's work or school performance, or if acceptance of the harasser's behavior is made a condition of employment or academic achievement.Perceptions differ about what behaviors constitute sexual harassment.However, typical examples of sexual harassment include sexually oriented gestures, jokes, or remarks that are unwelcome; repeated and unwanted sexual advances; touching or other unwelcome bodily contact; and physical intimidation.Sexual harassment can occur when one person has power over another and uses it to coerce the person to accept unwanted sexual attention.It can also occur among peers-for example, if coworkers repeatedly tell sexual jokes, post pornographic photos, or make unwelcome sexual innuendos to another co-worker (Martha, 2003).
Women were sexually harassed long before there was a term for it.Under slavery, African American women were sexually used by white masters.Women working in homes have long been targets of sexual abuse.Since industrialization, women working in factories and offices have had to endure sexual comments and demands by bosses and coworkers as the price for economic survival.As students, women and girls have been sexual prey to teachers for as long as they have been allowed to be educated.On the streets and in the home, sexual pressure that women are not in a position to refuse has been invisible but pervasive.The exchange of sex for survival under conditions of coercion that defines prostitution has also marked women and men's unequal relations throughout and across societies (Martha, 2003).
Of all the forms that violence against women can assume, sexual harassment is the most ubiquitous and insidious; all the more so because it is deemed 'normal' behaviour and not an assault on the female entity.It affects women in all settings whether public or private and has psychological, medical, social, political, legal and economic implications.Instances of sexual harassment should not be viewed as isolated incidents; rather they should be construed as a gendered aggression against the rights and dignity of women.The fact that its pernicious effects are visible globally discounts any effort to view it with less gravity than it deserves (Srinivasan, 1998).
Power and status differences are almost always at the heart of sexual harassment.Harassers have a desire to exert control, humiliate and achieve and maintain dominance.A belief that women are inferior and should Akhtar 55 be kept in a submissive role is often part of a harasser's mentality.The variables that give rise to sexual violence are undoubtedly numerous and complex.Gender biased socialisation and social control at the family and societal level is at the root of sexual violence against women.The discrepancy between the norms, values, expectations and sanctions imposed on girls and those on boys because of the socially structured gender inequality, is a critical factor.Men are given unlimited freedom right from childhood, sanctions are imposed only on girls and almost none on boys.Therefore sexual harassment can be perceived as an outgrowth of the gender biased socialization process and a mechanism by which men assert power and dominance over women.Media plays a significant role in shaping notions about gender roles and gender identities within the Indian context.It is the cultural framework within which people get their cue.The portrayal of violence against women in any of the media -advertising, films, and newspaper reporting of sexual offences -is one of the most insidious as well as one of the most effective ways of showing where power lies in our society.It lies in the hands of the image-makers: men.To accept the media makers' excuse that 'we are not creating reality we are only reflecting it' is to accept that violence against women is a fundamental part of the relationship between the sexes (thus deserving accurate 'reflection'), rather than a symptom of the way men and women are taught to view each other (Davis et al., (ed) 1987).

Review of literature
Considerable variation exists in the estimated proportions of women reporting experiences with sexual harassment.Depending on the sample used, 16 to 90% of working women experience sexual harassment in their lifetime (Brooks and Perot, 1991;Gutek, 1985).Gruber's (1990) content analysis of 18 sexual harassment surveys found the median prevalence rate to be 44%.When coworker behavior is included, the prevalence rate ranges from 40 to 50% (Fitzgerald et al., 1995c).Research suggests that women's responses to sexual harassment fall along a continuum of avoidance, diffusion, negotiation, and confrontation (Gruber, 1989).Most women do not report their experiences of sexual harassment.Women do not report harassment for a variety of reasons ranging from a fear of retaliation or disbelief to a fear of losing ones' job or making the situation worse (Loy and Stewart, 1984;Cochran et al., 1997;Fitzgerald et al., 1995c).

Study area
The study area of this research work was District Srinagar of Kashmir Province in J & K State.Although the biography of Kashmir is strikingly different from rest of India, woman in the Int.NGOJ.traditional Kashmiri society lived like her sister communities in other parts / cultures of the Indian sub-continent.She equally shared the sorrows and fortunes of life.Although the practice of infanticide, foeticide, and dowry deaths were not resorted to, women were generally abused, maltreated, subjugated and physically victimized right from their childhood because of the socially structured inequality.Physical violence against women was prevalent among all social strata but the women belonging to lower social strata were victimized of sexual abuse also, thus writes Kapur (1992), "In Kashmir not only were the girls kidnapped for the purpose of prostitution but also sold by their poor parents themselves to the owners of the ill fame.In Srinagar there were many houses of illrepute.The most notorious places in Srinagar, where prostitution was carried on in a big way, were however the houseboats 'the floating houses of ill-fame'.These were mostly visited by the foreign visitors, especially the bachelors who often contracted a dreadful disease which occasionally proved fatal.Sandys, a missionary visitor to Kashmir thus wrote to British Residence on 18 June, 1916; "In returning my pass for travelling in Kashmir, may I be allowed to say that our pleasure in the beauties of Kashmir would have been far greater had we not had so many evidences of the abominable custom of procuration of women, who are freely offered to visitors to Kashmir (Kapur, 1992).
The various processes of change, like the process of modernization, have not succeeded to cut at the root of the traditional values and attitudes of the people towards women.Rather, the changing social structure, which exposed the Kashmiri women (belonging to all social strata) to outside world, has made them more vulnerable to all types of sexual abuse.They are subjected to the abuses like sexual harassment, molestation, eveteasing and even to immoral trafficking, kidnapping and abduction, and rape.Especially during the conflict situation in Kashmir a striking increase in the sexual violence against women has been witnessed.While entire communities suffer the consequences of armed conflict and terrorism, women and girls are particularly affected because of their status in society and their sex.
Tables 1 and 2 present the Statistical Figures of Crime against Women in Kashmir Zone and District Srinagar respectively.Here it is important to mention that these figures represent only a part of the actual victimisation of women as was stated by the SHO Women's Police Station Rambagh, "Most of the cases of wife beating and dowry are resolved at our level by counselling and thus are prevented from undergoing further trial''.Moreover, such cases are highly underreported by the victims because many of the abused women do not want their husbands to be prosecuted and also for the fear of humiliation and censure from family and community they do not report.Further, sexual violence is even more underreported mainly for the fear of being stigmatised and reprisal from the offender.Therefore these Police Records are an underestimation of the extent of violence against women in Kashmir.

Methods and techniques used
Data for the study was collected through both the quantitative as well as the qualitative methods by canvassing interview schedules, carrying out focus group discussions and observation.Interview schedules, carefully prepared and pretested, were administered to 300 respondents belonging to different age groups, educational and occupational categories.The required sample was selected through stratified random sampling.Stratification was made on the basis of age and occupational status of women which facilitated the distribution of the sample into different educational categories.Then the required sample was randomly selected among these strata.
Once the data had been collected, codebooks were developed, based on the responses in the interview schedules.Thereupon, the data in all the schedules, which had been duly filled in, were coded.The coded data was processed using the SPSS package.The task included feeding in the data, verification, computation, validation and presentation of tables to facilitate data analysis and interpretation.This quantitative data was then ready for interpretation.The interpretation of the data was carried out keeping in view the overall perspective of the study.Efforts were made to achieve a harmonious blend of quantitative and qualitative data.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
As shown by the Tables 3, 4 and 5, 34% of the sample was selected from the university students who are most vulnerable to this type of violence, 33% were selected from those in non-gazetted jobs and another 33% were selected from those in gazetted jobs.Keeping this distribution in view the age groups were started from 20 years which were as; 37% from (20 to 30) years age group, 39% from (30 to 40) years and 24% from (40 to 50) years age group.11% of the respondents were graduates and 89% were with P. G. and above qualifications and those pursuing P. G. courses and research.
As is revealed by the Table 6, 21% respondents reported of suffering sexual harassment at workplace / educational institutions among whom 34.9% were university students, 25.4% were those in gazetted jobs and 39.7% were those in non-gazetted jobs.Moreover 52% of these abused women were unmarried and 48% were married, and all these women were having high educational qualifications and they belonged to upper middle class and middle class.Regarding the age of these abused women 31.7% of them belonged to (20 to 30) years age group, 52.5% belonged to (30 to 40) years age group and 15.8% belonged to above 40 years age group.The above figures reveal that all women are vulnerable to this type of violence irrespective of their occupational status, marital status, educational or economic status.Further, it can also be concluded that high socio-economic or educational status does not protect a woman from sexual harassment.
Moreover, regarding the magnitude of sexual harassment, the qualitative methods employed in this study revealed that the situation was much more complex than that revealed by the quantitative methods.Since anonymity for respondent is not possible while using interview schedule technique, there is always a high degree of underreporting of the sensitive topics like sexual harassment; by and large, a woman has much to lose and little to gain by reporting victimization.From the observation and informal group discussions that were held during the field work, it was revealed that sexual harassment was rampant, and was happening across the board -in educational institutions and offices; much higher percentage of women were being sexually harassed.Yet another reason for the underreporting of Int.NGOJ.this type of sexual abuse that came to light through the qualitative methods was that a considerable number of abused women had responded to this violence through negotiation and had succumbed to the demands of their abusers thereby making the way of their career building, and therefore making the abuse even more debilitating and intense for those women whose response to this violence was either of endurance or of confrontation, and had laid even more negative impact on their career building.
As is revealed by the Table 7, there were two types of sexual harassment that the abused women had suffered from, the most common was suffering sexually coloured remarks which was experienced by 100% of the abused women whose perpetrators had been bosses, teachers as well as colleagues.While as 34.9% ( 22) of these abused women reported of having suffered a more severe type of sexual harassment also that is, request and demand for sexual favours -5 of them were abused by their teacher and 11 of them were abused by their boss while as 6 of them had been victimized both as students as well as employeethey had been abused by teacher as well as by their boss.
Common threads could be identified in their description of undergoing this abuse, they were initially provided undue favours by their offender accompanied by sexually coloured remarks followed by requests for sexual favours and when they did not approve of it the request was transformed into the demand for sexual favour accompanied by threats for their career or job.When they did not comply to such demands, their offenders made the working/educational environment hostile for them.They were repeatedly punished and humiliated for no fault of theirs.Even after their extreme efforts to keep everything in precision, their offenders did not end finding faults with them thereby inflicting pressure on them for sexual favours.All these abused women had suffered one to three such incidents in their lifetime and it was only when they left the educational institution, where they were abused, after somehow completing the course of education and, when either the abused women or the offender got transferred from the workplace where the women were sexually harassed, that the particular incident of violence came to an end but the fear of violence always hovered over their head.
The findings suggest that women working in offices have to endure sexual comments and demands by bosses and colleagues as the price for economic survival.As students, women and girls are sexual prey to teachers; in offices anf educational institutions, sexual pressure is invisible but pervasive.
As shown by the Table 8, none of the abused women had ever taken any action against the offender neither had they told anybody that they were being subjected to sexual harassment.When the abuse was limited to sexually coloured remarks, the strategy that all the abused women employed was to avoid the harasser and if not possible then to ignore and deflect the harassment by joking while preventing / and escaping any untoward incident and ignoring rest of it because, besides staking their career they would be attaching stigma to themselves should they take such matters seriously enough to report or complain to anybody.However, in case of more severe abuse when the offender requested and demanded sexual favours from the abused women, besides avoiding the abuser and refusing to agree to his demands these abused women sometimes had confrontation with the abuser, which was retrospectively thought as least helpful by these abused women rather, it resulted only in the escalation of violence.
There were many reasons reported by the abused women for their reluctance to take any action against the offenders and for never reporting their victimisation to anybody which primarily included fear of embarrassment and of being stigmatized, fear of reprisal which might worsen the situation and make the environment more hostile and as a consequence of it fear of losing the job or otherwise hurting their careers which according to these respondents they could not afford keeping in view the importance of economic independence.And fear of not being believed was one of the worst fears; these abused women reported, what is most frustrating, is that it is not always easy to prove harassment.Invariably, the chances are that it is the victim who ends up being accused of having ``invited it''.
The irony is that it is always the victim (a woman) who fears losses (especially of stigmatisation) at the exposure of the offence committed by men who have no fear because society has given them unlimited freedom accompanied by lack of the sense of accountability thus inflicting double victimisation on women.
Moreover, none of these abused women had ever informed their family members about the incidents of sexual harassment suffered by them.The reasons, as reported by them, were, that primarily it would have been embarrassing to discuss such matters with their family members and moreover it would have only aggravated their problem by troubling their family members who in distress might have asked them to leave the job / education or there was some apprehension that they might have found faults with their behaviour to have "invited" the abuse.So they found it safest to hide their sufferings while employing strategies to prevent any untoward incident and endured rest of it as the price for economic survival.

Conclusion
The paper concludes that all women are vulnerable to this type of violence irrespective of their occupational status, marital status, educational or economic status.It can also be concluded that high socio-economic or educational status does not protect a woman from sexual harassment.Regarding the magnitude of sexual harassment, the qualitative methods revealed that the situation was much more complex than that revealed by the quantitative methods.Since anonymity for respondent is not possible while using interview schedule technique, there is always a high degree of underreporting of the sensitive topics like sexual harassment; by and large, a woman has much to lose and little to gain by reporting victimization.From the observation and informal group discussions it was revealed that sexual harassment was rampant, and was happening across the board -in educational institutions and offices, much higher percentage of women was being sexually harassed than that estimated by the quantitative methods.Yet another reason for the underreporting of this type of sexual abuse that came to light through the qualitative methods was that a considerable number of abused women had responded to this violence through negotiation and had succumbed to the demands of their abusers thereby making the way of their career building, and therefore making the abuse even more debilitating and intense for those women whose response to this violence was either of endurance or of confrontation, and had laid even more negative impact on their career building.
There were mainly two types of sexual harassment that the reporting abused women had suffered from, the most common was suffering sexually coloured remarks which was experienced by all of them whose perpetrators had been bosses, teachers as well as colleagues.While as some of these abused women had suffered a more severe type of sexual harassment also that is, request and demand for sexual favours -some of them were abused by their teacher and some were abused by their boss while as some had been victimized both as students as well as employeethey had been abused by their teacher as well as by their boss.
Common threads could be identified in their description of undergoing this abuse, they were initially provided undue favours by their offender accompanied by sexually coloured remarks followed by requests for sexual favours and when they did not approve of it the request was transformed into the demand for sexual favour accompanied by threats for their career or job.When they did not comply to such demands, their offenders made the working/educational environment hostile for them.They were repeatedly punished and humiliated for no fault of theirs.Even after their extreme efforts to keep everything in precision, their offenders did not end finding faults with them thereby inflicting pressure on them for sexual favours.All these abused women had suffered one to three such incidents in their lifetime and it was only when they left the educational institution, where they were abused, after somehow completing the course of education and, when either the abused women or the Int.NGOJ.offender got transferred from the workplace where the women were sexually harassed, that the particular incident of violence came to an end but the fear of violence always hovered over their head.
Therefore, it can be concluded that women working in offices have to endure sexual comments and demands by bosses and colleagues as the price for economic survival.As students, women and girls are sexual prey to teachers; in offices and educational institutions, sexual pressure is invisible but pervasive.
None of the abused women had ever taken any action against the offender neither had they told anybody that they were being subjected to sexual harassment.When the abuse was limited to sexually coloured remarks, the strategy that all the abused women employed was to avoid the harasser and if not possible then to ignore and deflect the harassment by joking while preventing/and escaping any untoward incident and ignoring rest of it because, besides staking their career they would be attaching stigma to themselves should they take such matters seriously enough to report or complain to anybody.However, in case of more severe abuse when the offender requested and demanded sexual favours from the abused women, besides avoiding the abuser and refusing to agree to his demands these abused women sometimes had confrontation with the abuser, which was retrospectively thought as least helpful by these abused women rather, it only resulted in the escalation of violence.
There were many reasons for the abused women's reluctance to take any action against the offenders and for never reporting their victimisation to anybody which primarily included fear of embarrassment and of being stigmatized, fear of reprisal which might worsen the situation and make the environment more hostile and as a consequence of it fear of losing the job or otherwise hurting their careers which they could not afford keeping in view the importance of economic independence.And fear of not being believed was one of the worst fears as, what is most frustrating, is that it is not always easy to prove harassment.Invariably, the chances are that it is the victim who ends up being accused of having ``invited it''.
The irony is that it is always the victim (a woman) who fears losses (especially of stigmatisation) at the exposure of the offence committed by men who have no fear because society has given them unlimited freedom accompanied by lack of the sense of accountability thus inflicting double victimisation on women.
None of the abused women had ever informed their family members about the incidents of sexual harassment suffered by them.The reasons were, that primarily it would have been embarrassing to discuss such matters with their family members and moreover it would have only aggravated their problem by troubling their family members who in distress might have asked them to leave the job / education or there was some apprehension that they might have found faults with their behaviour to have "invited" the abuse.So they found it safest to hide their sufferings while employing strategies to prevent any untoward incident and endured rest of it as the price for economic survival.

Table 1 .
Statistical figures of Crime against Women in Kashmir Zone for the year 2003, 2004 and 2005 up to November.The figures represent the number of cases registered in different Police Stations of Kashmir Zone.

Table 2 .
Statistical figures of Crime against Women in District Srinagar from the year 2000 upto the November 2005.The figures represent the number of cases registered in different Police Stations of District Srinagar.

Table 3 .
Age distribution of respondents.

Table 4 .
Occupational distribution of respondents

Table 5 .
Educational Qualification of respondents

Table 6 .
Incidence of sexual harassment at the workplace / educational institution.

Table 7 .
Type of sexual harassment suffered.

Table 8 .
Abused women's responses to sexual harassment.