Mr. Le Khanh Luong, Director of Gender Equality Department (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) spoke at the Workshop.
Women and girls are 2.6 times more likely to be harassed than men and boys
The survey was conducted online from June 9, 2023 to June 23, 2023, with 4,570 participants. Of these, women and girls accounted for 73.0%; men and boys accounted for 25.2%; LGBTI respondents accounted for 1.4%.
The survey results show that 87.6% of women and girls participating in the survey feel safe when traveling in public. Compared to the 2021 survey, the rate of women and girls feeling safe when traveling in public tends to increase from 77.1% in 2021 to 87.6% in 2023. However, 12.4% of women and girls still feel unsafe when traveling in public, mainly concentrated in mountainous and rural areas. Specifically, 18.5% of women and girls living in mountainous and rural areas feel unsafe when traveling in public; while this rate in urban areas is 10.6% and in island areas is 5.6%. The reasons why women and girls feel unsafe are due to fear of robbery, theft, accidents, abuse, sexual harassment and fear of being kidnapped.
The rate of women and girls fearing being sexually abused or harassed is 44.3%, 1.8 times higher than that of men and boys. The rate of women and girls fearing being kidnapped is 23.7%, 1.6 times higher than that of men and boys.
The survey results also show that more than 90% of women and girls feel safe when using public transport (an increase of 16.3 percentage points compared to 2021 (73.7%). However, 9.9% of women and girls still feel unsafe when using public transport. Of which, young women aged 18 to under 30 and women and girls living in mountainous areas are the two groups that feel the most unsafe when using public transport.
Coaches and buses are the public transport modes that women and girls feel most unsafe, accounting for 77.1%; followed by buses at 59.8% and motorbike taxis at 46.9%. Up to 59.2% of women and girls believe that the risk of harassment/teasing/violence on public transport is 2.6 times higher than that of men and boys.
The survey also found that more than 30% of women and girls felt unsafe in some public places where they lived. The three public places where women and girls felt most unsafe were bus stations, train stations, ferry terminals, and bus shelters, accounting for 60.9%; followed by public toilets (43.6%) and finally streets and sidewalks (38.2%). These places are places where theft, harassment, teasing, and accidents are likely to occur.
Overview of the Workshop.
29.7% of victims of sexual harassment in public places choose to stay silent and endure.
Up to 18.8% of survey participants said they had been sexually harassed or witnessed sexual harassment in public places or on public transport. The three most common types of sexual harassment against women and girls were exposure of genitals, staring at the body, and being touched or groped intentionally. Streets, sidewalks, parks, playgrounds, buses and public transport were the places where sexual harassment occurred most often. The majority of perpetrators of sexual harassment in public places were men, accounting for 92.3%. The common response of victims was to seek support from those around them or leave. However, up to 29.7% of victims chose to silently endure and do nothing about the perpetrators' sexual harassment. Notably, when women and girls who were sexually harassed asked for support, 2.7% responded by “blaming the victim”.
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Le Khanh Luong, Director of the Department of Gender Equality (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) said that in order to reduce gender-based violence, the Prime Minister has approved the Project/Program on Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence for the 2016-2020 and 2021-2025 periods. Accordingly, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is responsible for guiding the pilot implementation of a number of models, including the Safe and Friendly City model for women and girls, to perfect the guiding documents and apply them widely nationwide.
In order to collect information and data for research and development of solutions to effectively implement prevention and response to gender-based violence in general and the model of a safe, women-friendly city in particular, the Department of Gender Equality has coordinated with Plan International Vietnam to organize an online survey on the issue of safety for women and girls in public places in 2022 and 2023. This survey focuses on understanding the current situation of public safety; the issue of sexual harassment in public places and seeking help for victims of violence and harassment in public places.
The results of the survey show that the safety of women and girls in public places has been improved positively through the implementation of policies and programs for socio-economic development. However, going into some specific aspects, it shows that the authorities at both the central and local levels need to continue to make efforts to more effectively ensure the safety of people in general, and women and girls in particular, when participating in activities in public places.
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