In the past eight years, about 35 women have registered complaints with the BMC after facing abuse or sexual harassment in agencies and institutions run by the civic body. While some of them are female civic staffers, others are pupils of BMC schools and even patients who have been harassed while receiving treatment at the civic hospitals.

Sources however revealed that the actual number of women who have faced sexual harassment in civic institutions is far greater, as many complaints are registered anonymously, and the special panel that arbitrates these matters has no provision for investigating such nameless complaints.