Darker Side of Urbanisation: Incidences of Sexual Harassment in Guwahati

Violence against women as a serious problem got international recognition in 1979 when UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). India became signatory to the Convention in 1993 and ratified CEDAW. However, reported incidences of violence against women continued to be witnessed. Rather it can be stated that gender violence have increased in the last few years and so has their forms, more so in the urban areas. Urbanisation does provide women greater mobility, employment opportunities, more access to educational facilities and more liberty than her rural counterparts. However, it also exposes them to detrimental situations such as sexual harassment in the professional and public spaces.

Guwahati, the largest urban centre of north-east India provides these opportunities to both men and women and at the same time it may also provide prospects for occurrence of gender-specific crimes. In this study an effort is being made to analyses the places of occurrence, types, frequency of occurrences of sexual harassment once a woman sets out from her home. The study is based on data collected from the women who are victims of sexual harassments of various forms both in professional and in public places.