NEW DELHI: Nearly four of five women (79%) in India have experienced some form of harassment or violence in public and a third groped or touched in public (39%), according to a ActionAid UK report released on Friday on occasion of the International Safe Cities for Women Day.
India is third among four countries surveyed which includes UK, Thailand and Brazil. The YouGov poll, which surveyed 2,500 women aged 16 and over in major cities across India, Brazil, Thailand and the UK, found that in India 84% of the women who experienced harassment were in the age group of 25-35 years, 82% of them were full time workers and 68% students.
"Shockingly, 89% of women in Brazil, 86% in Thailand and 75% in the UK have faced harassment or violence on the streets. The research highlighted that across the four countries, women in the lowest social economic groups most likely to experience violence or harassment in cities,'' the report said.
Over a third of women (39%) in India have been groped or touched in public, compared with 41% of women in Brazil, 44% in Thailand and 23% in the UK.
The research found that more women in the UK (43%), Brazil (70%) and Thailand (62%) felt at risk on the streets, whereas in India women felt more at risk on public transport (65%). ActionAid India director (programmes and policy) Sehjo Singh said, "The fear of harassment and violence has a crippling effect on women's abilities, and in itself it is an attack on women's rights."