Young School Girls Stalked in Patna

Naina Jha conducted an awareness workshop about sexual harassment at S.R. Vidyapeeth School on 27th April 2019, for 80 students.

Sexual harassment is of various types- verbal, non-verbal and physical. We often normalise the non-verbal sexual harassment like staring, ogling etc because it’s become so common. Stalking too, is one such evil, that we are too scared to talk about. One of the girls from the workshop shared her experience of being stalked by a boy whilst she was returning from school. She ignored it the first time and did not speak about it to anyone due to which the boy began stalking her everyday. When she finally spoke to her father about it, he took the necessary steps to put a stop to the stalking.

Very often girls are afraid to speak about sexual harassment they face, for the fear of being blamed or stopped from going out in public spaces.

Naina Jha explained to the students the different types of sexual harassment through activities and role play. She also gave them information of filing and FIR and important laws related to sexual harassment. Bringing the workshop to a close, she specifically highlighted the importance of bystander intervention and how they, as friends and peer groups, could stand up for each other and protect them from being harassed.