JANE reported her colleague to the company's human resource department after he started making offensive personal comments to her.

Once, he deliberately bumped into her breast.

The incident was treated by her company as a personal conflict, instead of sexual harassment, and Jane was advised to get over it.

The woman, in her 40s, who works in the food and beverage industry, felt so humiliated and helpless, she resigned.

Stories like these are on the rise here. In 2006, Aware got eight calls on sexual harassment. This number more than doubled to 19 last year.

What is more alarming is the apparent lack of redress for victims.

Aware's survey showed that only seven out of the 92 companies approached had specific policies in place against sexual harassment.

Criminal law deals with physical or sexual assault, indecent exposure, or outrage of modesty. But often, sexual harassment is more subtle - a suggestive stare, a sexual joke, or being called an offensive name.

LITIGATION DIFFICULT

Unless the victim can prove in court that such behaviour has created an unsafe work environment, litigation can be lengthy, expensive and difficult.

There is no law here against sexual harassment.

The difficulty in legislation lies in the definition of the crime.

Criminal lawyer Amolat Singh said: 'How do you legislate something with a definition that differs from person to person?'

The answer, then, must lie with individual companies.

Human resource practitioner Paul Heng, founder of NeXT Career Consulting Group, Asia, said most companies do not have policies against sexual harassment because it is not seen as widespread here.

Attitudes, then, must change.

Staff can be taught to recognise and deal with the problem. And clear disciplinary policies can be put in place to stop sexual harassment.

This article was first published in The New Paper on July 10, 2008.