Sexual Harassment: Story from a Community Health Worker From Asia

23 November 2022

I was not a very literate person when I started this work, but I learned many new things. I started to understand about mental health. The work I was doing exposed me to lots of different health facilities. My colleagues and I used to go to various health departments for work. A health officer based in a health center was assisting our work, but he requested that we only call on him for assistance at night time. So we had to call on him at very late hours. One night, I called him about a work-related matter and he began talking, but made no sense. He then became offensive. Later, I came to understand that the conversations were of an insulting and sexual nature. I addressed this with him and explained, “You can’t talk to me like that. I will inform the office.” But he didn’t care, and replied, “You have gone crazy as a result of working with crazy people!” I was very scared. I didn’t go to his office anymore. I would send my other colleagues.