The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed that between 2018 and 2020, there was a huge spike in cybercrimes against women, with registered cases doubling over the period of three years. The cases lodged specifically for publishing sexually explicit content targeting women online increased from 3,076 to 6,308—a 110 per cent rise. The recent Bulli Bai app case also shows that there is a definite uptick in such cases.
The NCRB has revealed that Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of cases of sexually explicit content against women online, at 2,120 cases. Assam followed in a close second with 1,132 cases. The NCRB’s data also showed that cases of cyberstalking and bullying of women increased from 739 in 2018 to 872 in 2020. Among the cities, Bengaluru reported the highest number of cases of electronically publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit content, followed closely by Lucknow.
On the other hand, the data also showed that the conviction rate for criminals who post such content against women was only 47.1 per cent, while the conviction rate for cyberstalking and bullying was even lower at 27.6 per cent. In 2020, 600 men and 19 women were arrested for these offences, the data revealed, also adding that fraud and sexual exploitation were the leading intent behind these registered crimes.
Due to this increase in cybercrimes against women, several states like Kerala, Telangana and Delhi have set up dedicated units to address the issue. Recently, the home ministry also revealed that in 2021, the national cybercrime portal received more than six lakh complaints, the majority of which were alleged crimes against women. 'Social media has become a good fetching ground for criminals. Personal data leakage, stalking, cyber impersonation and honey trapping are common crimes committed online. End-to-end encryption and anonymity in some of the apps embolden criminals to commit offences again and again,' a home ministry official had said regarding this data.
*Image used for representative purpose.