PUTRAJAYA: The lack of awareness among Malaysians of sexual harassment and the fact that such cases are going unreported is cause for concern.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said there was still a certain stigma attached to victims reporting such cases.
She said victims felt that it was pointless to report such cases to the authorities as justice would not be served against the perpetrators.
“We think there are a lot more cases related to sexual harassment which have gone unreported.
“And, this is because some of victims may feel it is not worth it to go through all the trouble and in the end justice is not served,” she said after launching a creative video competition on sexual harassment.
The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry’s statistics show that 711 cases were reported to the authorities between Jan and June of this year.
“Of which 498 cases was reported under Section 354 of the Penal Code, which involves the offence of assault or use of criminal force on any person to outrage the person’s modesty,” said Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the Women, Family And Community Development Minister.
“This was followed by 167 cases under Section 509 of the Penal Code which involved the offence of insulting the modesty of a person.
“While another 40 cases fell under section 377D and five cases under 377E of the Penal Code for committing gross indecency and for inciting a child to an act of gross indecency, respectively.”
Wan Azizah added that like women, men had also become victims of sexual harassment.
The creative video competition on sexual harassment is intended to involve the public in understanding that everybody has a role to play in putting a stop to sexual harassment.
The competition, which kicked off today, will go on until Oct 5. It is open to all Malaysian.
Apart from the video competition, the ministry also launched an online survey on sexual harassment, which end on Sept 4.
Dr Wan Azizah said input from the survey would be used as a guideline for a law on sexual harrasment.