Perspectives on responses to sexual assault

Artist’s description: The black symbolizes power. The red symbolizes power. The yellow symbolizes hope. The message is to stay strong; you are not alone. By: Shir-vonne Rhodes

[To support a survivor], I think you should have good listening skills. You should also be very patient, but at the same time, someone coming to you about such a crisis, I think you should…

Participant 1: I would advise [supporters from other cultures] to consider the [victim/survivor’s] family backgrounds and their culture. And maybe […] they could help in talking to their parents too, and help them with the…

I guess people in this group [are] saying “progressive South Indians,” but there are lot of South Indian people who wouldn’t think this progressively, and wouldn’t be comfortable with all of this, and who have…

I have one more to add. This thought just came to my mind, so what I was thinking was, in India any form of contraception is something – is not publicly spoken about. So I…

Where it [the policy] says, “the incident does not fit policy,” how would I know if something doesn’t fit the policy? […] Let’s say in the case of groping, what you call groping might not…

Personally for me [if I experienced sexual assault], I think sharing with a friend, or the counselling center would be more better. Obviously, as the other said, [sharing with someone] coming from a South Indian…

I feel like the most important thing is more support for the victim, because at some point, they don’t even want somebody to be touching them. They just want somebody to be listening to them,…

I mean the advisor, they should have the high awareness about cultural difference- about LGBT and things like that – so when they give advice it will be, you know, relevant and useful. Just like…

Basically, being able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes helps with questions like whether it should be reported or how it should be reported. You should open up your state of mind, especially…