India today Sex Survey 2018 is about prevalence of sex at the workplace, but before going through the findings it is important to understand what I the Indian law on sexual violence says.

As per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, sexual harassment is defined as an unwelcome act and/ or behaviour at the workplace that is sexual in nature. The woman who faces the behaviour decides whether it was welcome or unwelcome to her.

Nobody can decide for and/ or on behalf of her. Unwelcomeness of the behaviour depends upon individual beliefs, likes, dislikes, preferences, ideas, thoughts, feelings, culture of the geographical location and organisation, which together constitute personal boundary.

Whenever a woman feels and/ or thinks that her personal boundary has been crossed and experiences discomfort, she can complain of sexual harassment. Since sexual harassment is about the subjective perception of the woman, it is about the impact on them and the intention of the doer will not be taken into consideration. Sexual harassment can happen both directly as well as in a suggestive manner.

If a man experiences transgression of personal boundary, he can complain as per the organisation's code of conduct.

Any sexual activity without consent or forced by a man upon a woman amounts to sexual violence and there can be a criminal complaint against him under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and to the internal committee of the organisation under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act.

Now coming to the results national law of averages are cities around the country with the most sexually active white collar workforce among colleagues is fine for 44 per cent of the respondents but the survey suggests this number is way higher for Pune (70%), Indore (67%), Hyderabad (57%), Kochi (56%) and Chandigarh (55%), suggesting an acceptance of sexual relationships at the workplace in smaller cities.

These cities are more upfront about what they seek too. In Pune and Lucknow, 56 and 59 per cent of the respondents respectively said they had made sexual advances towards a colleague. This is far higher than the all-India average (28%). As for being at the receiving end of such advances, Pune reported an incidence of 59 per cent, much higher than the national average of 34 per cent.

Nationally, 49 per cent men responded that they had been tempted to have an affair at the workplace while the number for women was predictably lower at 34 per cent.

This wasn't the case in cities across India, with 69 per cent respondents saying yes to the query in Hyderabad, 60 per cent in Pune and 59 per cent in Lucknow.

At the national level, 28 per cent claimed they had sex with a colleague while the corresponding figure for Jaipur, at 47 per cent, was much higher, followed by Chennai and Lucknow at 46 per cent.

Lucknow, reported a higher than national average when it came to engaging in sex with subordinates. While Lucknow and Pune reported an acceptance of 48 per cent and 44 per cent respectively (among respondents who acknowledged workplace sexual liaisons), the all-India acceptance level for such liaisons stands at 29 per cent.

In Guwahati, 93 per cent respondents in this category claimed to have had sex with subordinates (the national average among women for such a liaison was 45 per cent, and for men, 56 per cent).

Hyderabadis seemed to fantasise way more about colleagues (72%), more than Chennai (65%) and Gurgaon (59%) and much more than the national average of 43 per cent. Puneites engaged in 'sexting' the highest (55%) while the national average on this was just 28 per cent.

Kiss-and-tell seems to be a common thing, with half of those polled nationally saying they knew of someone who had had sexual relations with a co-worker.

But in Lucknow, the incidence is again higher at 65 per cent of respondents, with similar statistics in Chandigarh.

Delhi, often branded as the rape capital, maintains the dubious distinction of being the city with the maximum incidence of sexual harassment at the workplace (59%).

Smaller cities like Pune (55%), Lucknow (52%) and Guwahati ( 42%), though, are not too far behind. This, however, could well be due to lack of awareness in small towns about what constitutes harassment. "It is common for male colleagues to use gender-specific expletives at the workplace, comment on attire and body shame female colleagues. Maybe they don't realise that this is sexual harassment... or perhaps they're just brazen about it," says a female staffer at an Indore hotel. Clearly, men in emerging metros are not used to the idea of sharing space with women at the workplace.

Besides physical gratification, sex at the workplace seems to be doing wonders for careers too. Nationally, over half of the respondents (51%) said that sex at the workplace had a positive impact on their careers.

In Ahmedabad, 100 per cent of the respondents said that it gave them a career boost; in Guwahati, 98 per cent said so while 74 per cent in Lucknow also claimed the same. In terms of productivity, 55 per cent of those polled said that sex had a positive impact while 26 per cent saw no impact. In this case, too, Ahmedabad topped with 100 per cent approval.

Finding a suitable spot for sex seems to be an issue in Guwahati with 86 per cent respondents saying they had sex during office hours.

About 83 per cent reported that they know of at least one person who was caught having sex at the workplace. Pune reported an equal number of people who were aware of such cases. At an all-India level, only 43 per cent seemed to be in the know.

Interestingly, Guwahati, at 91 per cent, with all the sex happening during office hours, seems to be the most open to telling HR if colleagues are having a sexual relationship. In Ahmedabad and Ranchi, none of the respondents wanted to share such information.

Nationally, 29 per cent of respondents wanted to inform HR about sexual escapades at the workplace.

At the all-India level, 51 per cent of respondents said they had had sex with one colleague. In Patna, 92 per cent of respondents also claimed a single partner. In contrast, in Ahmedabad, 43 per cent respondents claimed to have had three partners.

Input : Agency Internet desk