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.     Key words: Sexual harassment, violence, magnitude, women’s responses, Kashmir.