New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Women employees in Bangalore face least mental harassment at the workplace among major cities in the country, while Ludhiana, Kolkata and Pune were found to be least supportive to them, according to a new study released Monday.

The findings of a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) on 'Night Shift for Women: Growth & Opportunities' reveals that women employees across the country face the maximum insecurity in sectors such as leather and textiles while hospitals and the BPO industry provide them with the maximum security.

Sponsored by the National Commission for Women (NCW), the study is based on responses of 272 women employees in some of the leading cities including Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Ludhiana.

It highlights that 85.15 percent women employees are satisfied with their employers' attitude towards them.

Mental harassment faced by women employees has been found to be least in Bangalore with only six percent of the respondents having faced it. Chennai with seven percent, Hyderabad with eight and Mumbai with nine percent follow.

Though Delhi was not the worst, as many as 14 percent women in the capital reported having faced mental harassment.

"Ludhiana, Kolkata and Pune are the industrial hubs in which the harassment to women employees has been reported at 27 percent, 19 percent and 17 percent respectively," states the report.

The survey reveals that 98 percent respondents from Chennai, 97 percent from Bangalore, 94 percent from Hyderabad and 91 percent from Mumbai are satisfied with their employers.

As many as 84 percent respondents from Delhi were satisfied while the figure for Kolkata was 88 percent.

"The level of satisfaction on the basis of size of the firm indicates that large-scale firms are on better grounds from all points of consideration," the report states.

This is primarily because large companies try to introduce strategies that are multi-directional in nature. They were found to conduct regular cross-functional interactive sessions for the night shift employees.

Similarly, medium-sized firms were found to be better than small-scale firms, though they "need a lot of improvement in their arrangements for women working in night shifts for their health and security," states the report.

The insecurity factor for women is high in the small-scale firms (45 percent), while it is lower in medium scale firms (26.4 percent) and large-scale firms (13 percent).

The survey also revealed that commuting problems are more for those employed in small-scale firms (21 percent) whereas these are much less in medium scale (10 percent) and large-scale firms (nine percent).

Respondents said that no childcare facilities were provided in small-scale and medium-scale firms. Only eight percent women employees from large-scale firms reported that they were provided with such facilities at the workplace.