The study was released by Save The Children in India, an international non-governmental organisation. (Reuters/Jitendra Prakash)

India's richest girls and young women, aged 11 to 18, feel the least safe among all income groups in public spaces, according to a new study that explored safety perceptions among adolescent girls.

According to the new study titled 'Wings 2018: World Of India's Girls', across urban (47 per cent) and rural (40 percent) areas, young girls felt more susceptible to molestation or abuse while using public transport.

This finding was particularly true for girls from higher income groups (53 percent), belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) and general castes (45 percent), according to the study.

The study was released by Save The Children, an international non-governmental organisation.

School girls in Assam. (Photo: PTI)

The survey was conducted across 30 cities and 84 villages in 12 districts. The study included 3,128 adolescent girls, 1,141 young men (aged 15-18), 248 young women (aged 19-22) forced to marry early and 842 parents of adolescent girls.

Further, highlighting how adolescent girls interacted with public spaces, the study says, more urban than rural young girls and women used public spaces.

Girls from medium and small towns (51 per cent) reported feeling more unsafe than those in large cities (44 per cent), small villages (42 per cent) and large villages (39 per cent).

"The possible reason for greater fear among adolescent girls of higher income groups was that, these girls lead a more cocooned life without the required level of resilience and therefore feel relatively more threatened," the study said.

After public transportation, narrow roads leading to school, local markets or private tuition were regarded as most unsafe. Young women belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes from lower income households found these areas particularly unsafe.

The study was conducted in six states of India, namely Assam, Delhi-NCR, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and West Bengal.

Less than half of India's girls leave home to meet friends, play in park

More urban than rural young girls and women used public spaces, the study found.

For urban and rural areas, "going to school" was the most universally accepted safe public space (96 per cent) for girls, the study found. Attending private tuition-significantly higher for urban (54 per cent) than rural (32 per cent) residents-followed.

As mentioned above, after public transportation, local markets, private tuitions or roads leading to school were regarded as most unsafe among young girls.

41 per cent of adolescent girls in urban areas could go out to meet friends; in rural areas, no more than 34 per cent of girls could.

In urban areas, only 20 per cent of the girls felt that they could safely play in a public park or go for a morning walk, whereas, only 15 per cent of girls in rural areas think alike.

Source: Wings 2018: World Of India's Girls

Girls also feared to go to cinema halls. Over a quarter of young women from large cities (28 per cent), especially those from low income groups and slums, said they felt unsafe in cinema halls, the study found.

"The plausible reason or this could be that these girls from the slums or the economically weaker section fear that their complaints may go unheard in a place occupied by the relatively better placed-class wise and caste wise," the study observed.

Probably, for the same reasons SC and ST girls find the school and the road to the school more unsafe compared to general caste and OBC girls.

Personal safety concerns of girls while in 'unsafe place'

Dense gathering was cited as an important reason for making public spaces unsafe by three out of five boys and two out of five parents.

Over one in four adolescent girls fear they could be abducted, physically assaulted or even raped while venturing into public space.

Two out of three adolescent girls fear being verbally abused as the worst form of harassment that makes them feel unsafe, followed by stalking and staring and being jousted or touched inappropriately in public. This is consistent across both urban and rural India.

Especially in urban areas, nearly 20 per cent of the girls felt that they could be physically assaulted in public spaces and 11 per cent feared rape.

According to the perceptions of adolescent boys and parents on safety of girls in public spaces, the girls should avoid public spaces, the study observed.

"As many as half of the boys and as many of parents of adolescent girls are of the opinion that the best way for girls to be safe is that they should avoid certain public spaces or they should simply avoid going out after dark," the study said.

Girls least likely to study molestation/abuse to police or teachers

The study also delved into how girls felt about studying abuse in public spaces. Girls reported feeling most comfortable confiding to their mother, father, close friends and peers, if subjected to molestation or abuse in public.

They were less likely to confide in siblings and other relatives and least likely to approach teachers, other school staff and the local police.

The reason for most of them not going to the police was because they (the police) were considered insensitive. They also perceived that the process involves lot of time and resources and, in the end, damages the reputation of the girl.

Source: Wings 2018: World Of India's Girls

Girls feared restrictions on leaving home if they confide in families; this was more evident in urban (49 per cent) than rural (36 per cent) areas.

The study found the fear of retribution as the second-most reported reason for not confiding in their families. 44 per cent of urban adolescent girls and 38 per cent rural girls felt they would be scolded for letting themselves get harassed.

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