Kousik, SushamaArya, Saurabh2016-10-052016-10-052014http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/79944The present investigation was carried out in one urban and one rural co-educational Senior Secondary schools of panchkula district of Haryana state. 25 girl students from classes 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th were selected randomly from each school, making a total sample of 200 girls. 50 mothers and 25 teachers from rural and urban areas were also selected as per availability. Well-structured interview schedules was constructed separately for girls, mothers and teachers for data collection. A set of 21 independent and 3 dependent variables were selected for investigation. Result revealed that most of respondents had medium mass media exposure and low social participation, medium leadership qualities and high self confidence. Medium level of anxiety, depression, loss of behavioural emotional control, emotional ties and life satisfaction was observed , while high level of general positive effects was found. Most of students travelled 2 to 5km to school and majority walked with friends. A large majority of rural (92%) and urban (81%) respondents admitted about prevalence of sexual harassment. Public transport and road side were the most harassment prone places, 42 per cent of rural and 15 per cent of urban respondents perceived home as a potential places of harassment. Strangers were mostly responsible for harassment followed by driver/servant, neighbor/visitors and relatives and cousins. Regarding harassment in school, 60 per cent of rural and 52 per cent of urban girls faced harassment in school at any given time and school gate was the most common place of harassment. Though mothers were aware of safety of girls, they did not perceive as much threat of unsafely at home as their daughters perceived. The most important cause of sexual harassment felt by girls was to display sense of power. About one third girls did not tell anybody about sexual harassment. Regarding safety measures at home, majority of rural and urban girls had high awareness; however, rural mothers had medium awareness. Similarly in case of safety in school, social setting and internet safety, rural mothers had low to medium awareness. Overall mothers had poor awareness regarding some of the symptoms of a harassed child and traits of harasser. Very few mothers talked about sex and sexuality with their girls. Anxiety and depression were found negatively and significantly related with feeling of safety. No relationship of most of independent variables was found with prevalence of sexual harassment. Based on focus group discussion, several factors causing sexual harassment emerging suggestions at individual girls level, parental level, school level and societal level have been presented.enbiological phenomena, Economic systems, Participation, Research methods, Marketing, Area, Self help, Imports, Manpower, WellsThesis