Sexual Harassment: Myths and Realities (2 of 5 on Crime against Women)

MYTH: Sexual harassment is rare. 
FACT: Sexual harassment is extremely widespread. It touches the lives of 40 to 60 percent of working women, and similar proportions of female students in colleges and universities.

MYTH: The seriousness of sexual harassment has been exaggerated; most so-called harassment is really trivial and harmless flirtation. 
FACT: Sexual harassment can be devastating. Studies indicate that most harassment has nothing to do with "flirtation: or sincere sexual or social interest. Rather, it is offensive, often frightening and insulting to women. Research shows that women are often forced to leave school or jobs to avoid harassment; may experiences serious psychological and health-related problems.

MYTH: Many women make up and report stories of sexual harassment to get back at their employers or others who have angered them.
FACT: Research shows that less than one percent of complaints are false. Women rarely file complaints are false. Women rarely file complaints even when they're are justified in doing so.

MYTH: Women who are sexually harassed generally provoke harassment by the way they look, dress and behave.
FACT: Harassment does not occur because women dress provocatively or initiate sexual activity in the hope of getting promoted and advancing their careers. Studies have found that victims of sexual harassment vary in physical appearance, type of dress, age, and behavior. The only thing they have in common is that over 99% of them are female.

MYTH: If you ignore harassment, it will go away.
FACT: It will not. Research has shown that simply ignoring the behavior is ineffective; harassers generally will not stop on their own. Ignoring such behavior may even be seen as agreement or encouragement.
- from the Journal of the American Psychological Association

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SreeRam is a KravMaga self-defence instructor at Chennai, South India. He teaches Civilians, Chennai City Police and Security. 
SreeRam has started W.A.H.R (Women against harassment & Rape) an NGO devoted to increase personal safety awareness amongst women and equip them to handle sexual harassment at public and work places.
SreeRam conducts KravMaga personal safety and self-defense workshops at corporates, especially IT/BPO companies where many women work late. He has also conducted workshops, for rural women.
On 8th March 2012 ( International Women's Day) KravMaga SreeRam released a small handy booklet for women titled " 10A-s of Personal Safety for Women" 
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Related links -  
" 10A-s of Personal Safety for Women" - Part I & Part II
Are women safe on the Indian streets? The ugly truth revealed by statistics.
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Mobile - 0-934 000 66 00 , Email - kravmaga.chennai@gmail.com 
Chennai Site - https://sites.google.com/site/kravmagachennai/
KRAVMAGA BLOG -  http://kravmaga-chennai.blogspot.com/
LINKED IN -  http://in.linkedin.com/in/ksr960
FACEBOOK - http://bit.ly/KravMagaChennai
YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/user/KravMagaSreeRam
GOOGLE PROFILE - http://www.google.com/profiles/ksr960
TWEET - @kravMagaSreeRam
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

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