Survey in Guj district shows sexual violence is serious issue

As many as 37 per cent of teenage girls and 61 per cent of women experienced sexual violence in some or other form in the last one year, a survey in Gujarat's Surendranagar district has revealed.

The survey "Public space safety of rural girls and women" was conducted in 16 villages in Dasada tehsil by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) and Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls (SWATI).

A total of 572 women and 536 adolescent girls took part in the survey.

As many as 59 per cent of respondents faced situations such as men passing comments, singing songs or playing songs loudly, demanding to know mobile number, throwing notes at them.

As many as 5.7 per cent of women respondents reported that men clicked their photographs without consent.

Winking and stalking was faced by 41.1 per cent of women while 29.7 per cent of women had faced touching and groping.

The cases of "unwanted display" accounted for 2 per cent while 1.7 per cent women reported rape or attempt to rape.

As many as 42 per cent of girls (age 15-19 years) said they felt they should get married early so as to get protection from sexual violence.

As many as 46 per cent of girls and 54 per cent of women were of the view that women and girls should always be accompanied by men when venturing out.

"To avoid public space sexual violence, 42 per cent girls changed their route, 25 per cent changed their timing and 30 per cent missed school," the survey report said.

Sexual violence also affected social life of girls and women. Only 6 per cent of respondents were allowed to go out for leisure activities, against 30 per cent of young men (age 18-22 years).

Only 17 per cent of respondent girls owned a mobile phone, against 96 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women.

Also, only 4.3 per cent of girls had access to the Internet compared to 26 per cent of young men.

"Sexual violence in rural areas makes adverse impact on lives of girls, who are in turn prevented from venturing out, and forced to drop out of school. Early marriage, higher level of domestic violence and pregnancy complications are the fallout they suffer," said Poonam Kathuriya of the NGO SWATI.