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Safety First: Street Harassment and Women’s Educational Choices in India

April 6, 2017 By Contributor

Guest Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

By Girija Borker

Why do women in India choose to attend lower ranked colleges?

Is it because women have lower high school test scores? No.

Is it because of street harassment? YES.

Women studying in Delhi University (DU), one of the top universities in India, choose lower ranked colleges than men with the same high school test scores. This is despite the fact that women score higher on national high school exams than men. And this is true even for the smartest and the most ambitious women. My research aims to understand why women are making these choices and whether it is because women trade-off quality of education for safety from harassment.

DU is composed of 77 colleges and the colleges are spread across Delhi. The colleges vary in quality, with each college having its own campus, staff and classes. Undergraduate admissions in DU are centralized and primarily based on students’ high school test scores. I surveyed over 4,000 students at DU to collect information on students’ daily travel route, travel mode, their high school scores and exposure to street harassment. At DU, most students live with their parents and travel to college every day, predominantly by public transport. In my sample, over 70% of students live at home and of these around 80% use public transport to travel to college every day. Most women I surveyed have experienced some form of street harassment – 63% of women have experienced unwanted staring, 50% have received inappropriate comments, 27% have been touched inappropriately and 25% have been followed.

To determine how the risk of harassment during travel affects college choice, I combine safety data with information on students’ chosen travel route and alternative travel routes available. Safety data comes from SafetiPin, a map-based mobile application that allows users to characterize the safety of an area. Information on harassment by travel mode comes from Safecity, a mobile application that lets women share their stories of harassment in urban public spaces. I used Google Maps to map the route options available to each student for their travel to college every day.

Harassment risk and students’ chosen travel routes to a college in Delhi University.
My analysis indicates that avoidance behavior in response to street harassment can largely explain women’s choices. I found that women are willing to attend a college that is 6 ranks lower for a route that is 1 standard deviation safer. This means that if a woman must choose to travel daily to the number 1 ranked college but face a high probability of harassment, or commute to the 6th ranked college that incurs on average 1 standard deviation less of harassment, she will choose the 6th ranked college. Compared to men, women are willing to give up 4 more ranks for an additional standard deviation of safety. Even among individuals who chose the best college in their set of available choices, women spend Rs. 15,500 ($250) more than men in annual travel costs to take safer, but more expensive travel routes to college. This amount is equivalent to 6% of the average per capita annual income in Delhi.

This is the first study to assess the effects of street harassment on women’s college choice. The study highlights the degree to which the threat of street harassment holds back promising young women, even at a prestigious university in a modern city. The findings speak to the long-term consequences of everyday harassment – perpetuating gender inequality in education. Policy makers must realize that affirmative action for women is not enough unless we transform public spaces into enabling environments that are accessible to all.

Girija is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Economics at Brown University. She works primarily in the areas of gender economics, economics of education, and development economics. Girija grew up in Delhi and did her undergraduate studies from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University.
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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, Resources Tagged With: Brown University, choice, college, Delhi University, higher education, Hyderabad India, India, public transportation, SafetiPin, university

Street Harassment Weekly – Jan. 5-11, 2015

January 12, 2015 By BPurdy

Welcome to the Street Harassment Weekly, your update on all the street harassment news you missed from the past week. Here’s what’s been going on:

The ATM At Which Women Can Report Sexual Assault – “In the Indian state of Odisha, the state government estimates that around 60 per cent of sexual assaults against women go unreported. The ICLIK, developed by the Odisha government and OCAC, a local computer company, allows women to log a report of assault or harassment while appearing to visit a bank machine.”

Indian “Sex Offender” Forced to Bend Over To Be Smacked By Women– “Is this India’s new, creative way of disciplining sex offenders? A man, 23, accused of sexually harassing several young women in central India was reportedly forced to bend over in the middle of a public street to have his buttocks smacked by a group of angry schoolgirls.”

Commentary: Why Do We Ask For Gender-Segregated Transport For Women If The Problem Is Men Behaving Badly? – “Women need to be able to occupy public spaces and use public transport in the same way that men do. We need to go to work and school and walk the streets without fear – and a women-only train car doesn’t do anything but offer a temporary solution filled with too many gaps. If we want to stop harassment on subways and buses, we need to start with men and getting them to change their actions.”

Acid Attacks: The Other Half of the Story You Don’t Know– “Acid attacks are seen as one of the most horrendous crimes against women. However, not only women, men are equally prone to the attacks. Chandras Mishra from Meerut is an acid attack victim. He was attacked with the lethal chemical three years back by his landlord’s son, who he had stopped from eve teasing a woman.”

Four Arrested for Eve-Teasing in Hyderabad – “The victim, in her complaint to the police, said that on Friday while she and her sister were returning from a shop the accused started to tease her. When she stopped and questioned them, one of the accused tried to pull her scarf.”

One Tweet Sums Up The Struggle Every NYC Woman Faces On the Sidewalk – “This is called “manslamming,” which Jessica Roy, who interviewed Breslaw about her experience for the Cut, defines as “the sidewalk M.O. of men who remain apparently oblivious to the personal space of those around them” who “will walk directly into you without even acknowledging it” should someone fail to move out of their path.”

It Happened To Me: I Was Catcalled Wearing the Equivalent of a Down Comforter – “Women get catcalled in skirts. They are catcalled in jeans. They get whistled at in trench coats, in yoga pants, in business suits. The problem with catcalling does not lie with women’s clothing. Rather, the problem is with the men who do it.”

The Backlash Against African Women – “Public strippings represent the front lines of a cultural war against women’s advancements in traditionally conservative but rapidly urbanizing societies. They aren’t really about what women are wearing. They are much more about where women are going.”

Street Harassment: Why It’s Not Ok To Comment On Me – “A woman’s body is part of a person; it’s not an object. I am a woman, and my body belongs to me and no one else. Strangers on the street having the right to comment on it? When did that happen? Did I miss the memo?”

CONTEST:
Female Singer-Songwriters wanted to help create anti-street harassment video

UPCOMING EVENT:
Challenging Violence Against Women and Girls on UK Public Transport–
DATE: Tuesday 20th January 2015
TIME: 10.45 to 13.00 (with lunch provided 13.00-14.00)
VENUE: Room G1 & G2, British Transport Police Force Headquarters, 25 Camden Road, London NW1 9LN

 

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment, weekly round up Tagged With: acid attacks, Hyderabad India, ICLIK, India, jessica valenti, manslamming, NYC, Odisha, public stripping, UK Public Transport, women-only public transportation

Street Harassment Punishment is… Sweeping?

May 8, 2009 By HKearl

Gandhi Hospital in India. Photo credit: panoramio.com
Gandhi Hospital in India. Photo credit: panoramio.com

In Hyderabad, India, a young man accused of street harassment (pulling on the scarves of two young women walking by from a motorcycle) has been sentenced to sweeping a government-run hospital (named Gandhi Hospital) one hour a day, for one month. “He is allowed to choose the hour according to his convenience.”

The escort of the two young women filed a complaint with the police, who then registered the case against the men (there were two harassers though the fate of the second man wasn’t disclosed in the article) “under section 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code against Kumar.” And then Justice B. Chandrakumar sentenced the young man to sweeping the hospital as punishment.

What do you think about this punishment for street harassment? Too much? Too little? Too weird? Creative?

(Thanks to b for the tip)

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Filed Under: Stories Tagged With: Andhra Pradesh High Court, Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad India, Indian Penal Code, M. Dinesh Kumar, sexual harassment, street harassment

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