DIFFERENCE IN PERCEPTION OF AVOIDANCE STRATEGIES AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT AMONG UNDERGRADUATE FEMALES STUDENTS IN WOMEN AND CO-EDUCATIONAL COLLEGE IN DELHI.

Young female adults are most vulnerable to harassment and violence towards them. These strategies could be learned either from circumstances surrounding or by some organized training. A descriptive, cross sectional survey design on 200 female undergraduate students from two women colleges and two co-educational colleges from University of Delhi, India was undertaken using convenient sampling technique. A semi structured interview and a structured awareness questionnaire developed by researcher was used. Results:Awareness was not found to be correlated to any of the variables and the type of college (women or co-educational college) they attended.Females in coeducational college had more awareness regarding description of sexual harassment, identification of high risk situation, actions against sexual harassment and prevention of sexual harassment. Female in women college had a view to ignore sexual harassment incidence than co-educational college females. Implications: Youth need to be aware and avoid risk factors for safety of self and how to report the incident to prevent further harassment. Conclusion: Awareness about avoidance strategies of coeducational college females was more in some selected aspects of awareness about avoidance of sexual harassment.