The power of numbers

The power of numbers

Context:

Collecting data about sexual violence is a crucial step towards breaking the culture of silence

Statistics

Difference in perceptions about the prevalence of sexual harassment:

• When the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) asked men and women in over 40,000 households about how often young women in their neighbourhoods were harassed, 20% of women and 14% of men said this occurred ‘at least sometimes’ in 2005.
• In 2012, when the same households were interviewed again, 31% of women and 21% of men reported that harassment was prevalent in the same neighbourhoods.

What does this imply?

• This suggests that women are far more likely to feel harassment is pervasive in their neighbourhoods than men.
• moreover, for both men and women, perceptions of sexual harassment increased by almost 10 percentage points between 2005 and 2012 in the same neighbourhoods.

Actual Experiences:

• Lok surveys, asked women about their actual experiences of sexual harassment to nearly 78,000 women.
• When asked, how often you have experienced unwanted groping/touching by men, nearly 10% said often and an additional 7.5% said very often.
• Since personal experiences of this nature is generally expected to be underreported, over 17% women claiming they experience unwanted groping often or very often is striking.
• Of the 15.67% of women who reported experiencing groping/touching only ‘rarely,’ a fair number might have been under-reporting.
• When both men and women were asked whether “women should tolerate eve-teasing as a normal part of life” only about 50% disagreed with this statement
• Others either agreed to some extent or had no opinion. The acceptance of sexual harassment is striking

National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – IV

• NFHS asked questions about women’s experiences of sexual violence.
• About 5.5% of the women surveyed say they have experienced sexual violence;
• Over 80% of these instances of violence are perpetrated by husbands.

What is the problem with NHFS results?

• These results direct attention to the home as the primary site for violence, away from public spaces and workplaces.
• This is misleading and largely reflects problems in survey design and execution.
• NFHS-IV is: “Has anyone ever forced you in any way to have sexual intercourse or perform any other sexual acts when you did not want to?”
• It then goes on to ask the identity of the perpetrator.
• The question which is most likely asked in semi-public settings, in the absence of lead-up and sensitivity, elicits largely negative responses.
• It, moreover, asks about non-consensual sexual acts; it does not account for sexual coercion tactics

What is missing in all the data mentioned above?

• There is no mention of sexual harassment and violence against women in the workplace.
• There is minimal data on workplace harassment in India.

Why is data collection on sexual harassment extremely challenging?

1. It is difficult to define sexual harassment
2. It is even more difficult to collect information about painful and stigmatising experiences.

Way ahead:

• There should be privacy, safety and guard against further stigmatising survivors of sexual harassment and violence.
• Data must be collected and interpreted with sensitivity in order to do justice to the struggles women encounter in the face of gendered and sexual violence.
• However, collecting and disseminating data about sexual violence is the first step towards breaking the culture of silence and finding ways of combating violence against women.