New York  - New York next month will launch a citywide campaign to fight groping and sexual harassment in its crowded subway system, which has gone largely unreported and unpunished, news reports said Wednesday.

The city's transit system plans to distribute some 2,000 posters in September in the vast subway network that carry millions of commuters each day. New York City has a population of 8 million, but rush hour bring millions more people from suburbs in Connecticut and New Jersey to their offices in Manhattan.

The posters will urge women who are groped or harassed to report the incidents to police or transit employees.

News reports said a study by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer showed last year that at least 63 per cent of women surveyed had experienced groping and 10 per cent of them had been sexually assaulted.

"Women, in particular, need a strong and smart response from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MAT)," Stringer said.

"If you get touched you should complain, and the more people that complain the more the MTA will have to develop a set of ways to hear those complaints and respond," he said. (dpa)