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Is sexual harassment of nurses an ice berg in India? Are our student nurses and nurses free from harassment?

Meena Ganapathy

Abstract


Abstract:
The brutal abuse done on Aruna Shanbhaug, a nurse from KEM hospital, Mumbai and on Nirbhaya, in Delhi and the sexual harassment of student nurses by the School of Nursing by the owner in Andhra Pradesh highlight the flight of women in India. Sexual harassment is always a play of unequal power dynamics wanting to crush the weaker. Despite being visible only at the tip, it is always been there deep rooted from times immemorial. All of us tend to sweep it under the carpet pretending the failure to see it will be equivalent to non – existence. But the truth is it is there everywhere at transit to transport, public places, educational institutions and work place. The potential harassers are free to do so because we tend to look at it as an individual issue and shame the victim rather than the system. Nursing being the profession with 90 % of its members being women is the most vulnerable profession. Nurses need to be aware of this issue, and act collectively to prevent this being done on the innocent, ill-informed victims.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.37628/ijnspr.v2i2.168

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