International Women’s Day 2023: 8 in 10 urban Indian women use internet struggle with harassment, abuse, trolling, says report

A survey conducted on International Women’s Day 2023 shows that 8 in 10 urban Indian women are now using the internet, but many struggles with online harassment, abuse and trolling. 

According to the survey conducted by LocalCircles, 83 per cent of women believe that more actions need to be taken to make it safer for them to use the internet without being trolled, harassed, abused, facing extortion and fraud. 

In addition, 46 per cent of them preferred the Women Cyber Grievance hotline, 60 per cent prioritised the National Women Cyber Grievance hotline, 40 per cent respondents wanted mandatory action by all platforms, and 29 per cent preferred National level awareness drives must be conducted on this issue. Surprisingly, 11 per cent of the respondents to this query indicated that women should not have special privileges like these.

76 per cent of urban Indian women are using the internet to stay in touch with family and friends, while 57 per cent of them are using it for finding information and entertainment. Another 46 per cent use the device for online shopping, 35 per cent use it for booking or paying for various services, 19 per cent use it to raise multiple issues/ using social media, 14 per cent for their employment, 5 per cent for running a business and 14 per cent for other reasons.

The revamped Cybercrime reporting portal launched in 2019 does claim to provide a special focus on cybercrimes against women & children. Incidents reported on this portal are supposed to be routed automatically to the respective States/UTs Police based on the information provided by the complainant. However, feedback from citizens does not seem to confirm its effectiveness, as in none of the community discussions, the above portal was cited by citizens. 

The majority of women who have faced sexual harassment, abuse, and trolling online go to the local police station to seek help, but with no women officers present in the majority of the stations there’s not much respite.

As per the committee set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs and a report presented in parliament, about 13,000 police personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cybercrime awareness, investigation, forensics, etc. Unfortunately, many of the States/UTs have yet to come on board for the purpose.

This survey by LocalCircles received over 23,000 responses from citizens in 301 urban districts of India, where 61per cent of respondents were men and 39 per cent were women. In addition, 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.

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