According to a survey by LocalCircles, 8 in 10 urban Indian women are now using the internet for a range of activities. Still, many struggle with cyber harassment, abuse, and trolling, and want action to be taken to make the internet safer. The survey revealed that 76 per cent of urban Indian women are using the internet to stay in touch with family and friends, while 57 per cent are using it for finding information, and for entertainment. Nearly 83 per cent of those surveyed believe more actions need to be taken to make it safer for women to use the internet without being trolled, harassed, abused, and facing extortion and fraud. "Key concerns of urban Indian women when using the internet include online sexual harassment, trolling, abuse, extortion and fraud," the survey said.
46 per cent of respondents favoured 'The Women Cyber Grievance hotline; 60 per cent of respondents emphasised that the 'National Women Cyber Grievance hotline should coordinate with the local police to drive timely action while ensuring zero police harassment of the complainant; 40 per cent of respondents wanted 'mandatory action by all platforms with a presence in India within 24 hours of submission of evidence'.
The survey received over 23,000 responses from citizens located in 301 districts of India. 48 per cent of respondents were from tier 1, 35 per cent from tier 2 and 17 per cent respondents were from tier 3 & 4 districts.