Experiences of sexual harassment of women health workers in four hospitals in Kolkata, India.

In 1997, the Supreme Court of India recognised sexual harassment in the workplace as a violation of human rights. However, little is known about the extent or persistence of sexual harassment. To obtain an understanding of women's experiences of sexual harassment in the health sector, an exploratory study was undertaken in 2005-2006 among 135 women health workers, including doctors, nurses, health care attendants, administrative and other non-medical staff working in two government and two private hospitals in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Four types of experiences were reported by the 77 women who had experienced 128 incidents of sexual harassment: verbal harassment (41), psychological harassment (45), sexual gestures and exposure (15), and unwanted touch (27). None of the women reported rape, attempted rape or forced sex but a number of them knew of other women health workers who had experienced these. The women who had experienced harassment were reluctant to complain, fearing for their jobs or being stigmatised, and most were not aware of formal channels for redress. Experiences of sexual harassment reflected the obstacles posed by power imbalances and gender norms in empowering women to make a formal complaint, on the one hand, and receive redress on the other.