Cybercrime Against Women

Not so long ago, social media was awash with the ‘Bois locker room’ incident that circulated obscene images of under-age girls via leaked chats from an exclusive group.
With this as our frame of reference, it is time we pause and acknowledge that ‘Bois locker room’ is not an isolated incident of young boys enabling rape culture, but instead is symptomatic of our societal mentality.
Reports of increased cyber bullying and cyber harassment have escalated over the past few years with the NCRB data showing 6,030 cybercrimes registered by women in the year 2018.
We need a targeted legislation that criminalises cyber Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). In the absence of any special legislation, both the IT Act and the IPC are interim solutions inadequate to contain the magnitude of problems.
The reason for this is that the IPC predates the digital era while the IT Act was formulated to enhance e-commerce as opposed to sensitising a hitherto unequal space.
Hence, devising a statute that exclusively addresses cyber abuse, harassment and violence faced by women will go a long way in changing the existing discourse on safety and equality.