Author: Mahak Chatkele , a student at Rabindranath Tagore university
Introduction
The best ; or say the worst thing about time is that it is unpredictable. Sometimes it is black, sometimes it is white. But she didn’t know if it was black or white, or where it began. She was floating in greys.
Maybe it was the time when the screenshot was captured without her Yes. Maybe it was when the comment felt not like a comment but more like a threat. Maybe it was the time when her photos from her ID were taken to morph, to misuse, to create a fake identity she never consented to. Maybe it was the morning she woke up to blue ticks, searched for something else, and found something she never wanted to find.
For millions of women, the internet has become a black hole ; no one knows what is coming after. Rather, the internet has become a place where they are followed to harass, liked to humiliate, cornered to hurt ;often by knowns and unknowns alike. Ironically, all of this happens without a single law that names exactly what is being done to them.
India has laws. It has the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. It has the Information Technology Act. It has provisions scattered across statutes like breadcrumbs that never quite lead anywhere. What it does not have is a coherent, victim-centric legal framework that treats cyber harassment of women as the distinct, serious, and gendered harm that it is. This article examines what exists, what fails, and what must change because the gap between a woman’s experience and the law’s response has gone unaddressed for far too long.
Abstract
Women in India inhabit a digital world that was never legally designed to protect them. While cyber crimes against women continue to rise, the existing legal framework scattered across the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Information Technology Act, 2000, and allied legislation remains fragmented, reactive, and fundamentally inadequate. No single statute in India specifically addresses cyber harassment as a distinct, gendered harm. Victims are left navigating a maze of provisions that were never built with them in mind. This article examines the critical gaps in India’s current legal architecture, analyses relevant case laws, and argues for a dedicated, victim-centric legislative framework that moves beyond outdated notions of “modesty” toward recognising digital safety as a fundamental right of every woman.
To the Point
Seems the law meant to maintain law fails at doing so. Cyber harassment of women in India is not a new phenomenon it is a phenomenon growing and spreading like wildfire. From fake morphs to threat texts, from online stalking to online harassing, the forms of digital abuse faced daily by women are disturbing. NCRB data reveals so, but the official record and what happens to cases that do not reach the official data record the official and unofficial data stand poles apart. Underreporting remains rampant because shame, fear, and a distrust of institutional response keep most women silent.
Indian law addresses pieces of the data as formality but never the whole. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 replaced old provisions but carried forward old blind spots. The Information Technology Act, 2000 was drafted for a different digital reality , one where coordinated harassment, deepfakes, and doxxing did not yet exist in their current form.
The point is : Indian law lacks a place to hold women safely, and so does Indian legislation. No dedicated legislation, no unified definition, no victim-first procedure. Women are not just falling through cracks ; they are disappearing into a silence the law has chosen not to break.
Legal Jargon
Cyber Harassment : Any repeated, intentional online conduct directed at an individual causing distress, fear, or reputational harm through digital means.
Doxxing The act of publicly exposing private or identifying information about an individual without their consent, typically with intent to harm.
Intermediary Liability The legal responsibility of online platforms for content hosted or transmitted through their services, governed under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Voyeurism ; Capturing, transmitting, or publishing private images of a person without consent, criminalised under Section 77 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
Digital Modesty : A judicial construct used in Indian courts to extend traditional notions of modesty into online spaces, though widely criticised as outdated and insufficient.
The Proof
The data reveals the unsafety of females. The numbers and stats do not lie, even when the law fails at showing so. According to the NCRB 2022 report, over 24,000 cyber crimes against women were recorded across India — a figure only stating formally reported crimes. What might be under the covers, who knows?
Experts and civil society organisations consistently estimate that actual incidence is several times higher, as the majority of victims never approach police due to fear, stigma, and a deep distrust of institutional response.
Among the most reported offences are cyberstalking, morphed images, obscene messaging, and online impersonation. Women between the ages of 18 and 30 constitute the largest affected demographic. Metropolitan cities report higher numbers, but semi-urban and rural cases go almost entirely unrecorded.
Platforms receive millions of harassment reports annually but act on a fraction. The gap between harm reported to platforms and harm addressed by law tells its own story : one India’s legislature has yet to read.
Case Laws
Indian courts have time and again been confronted with cyber harassment against women, yet the judicial response has remained reactive rather than reformative.
Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) : The Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, holding it unconstitutional for being vague and overbroad. While celebrated as a free speech victory, the judgment inadvertently removed one of the few provisions women used to seek relief against online harassment, exposing a legislative gap that remains unfilled.
Kalandi Charan Lenka v. State of Odisha (2017) : The Orissa High Court addressed a case involving morphed photographs and fake social media profiles created to harass a woman. The court recognised the severity of digital identity violation and upheld the accused’s arrest, affirming that online harassment carries real and serious legal consequences.
Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan (1997) : Though predating the digital era, this landmark judgment established that harassment in any space : physical or otherwise — violates a woman’s fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19, and 21. Courts have since drawn upon this reasoning to extend constitutional protection into digital spaces.
Conclusion
A daughter, a sister, a mother, a friend : a female. She is still there, floating in greys, waiting to be seen by the law, waiting for the law.
Cyber harassment of women in India is not a fringe issue debated in circles be it academic or professional. Cyber harassment has become the new ‘normal’ of trends : a daily reality faced by millions of women out there. Not occasionally, not rarely, but rather DAILY.
And when they turn to the law, they find provisions that were never written for them, officers who were never trained for this, and a system that asks them to prove their pain before it agrees to name it. A morphed image. A threat in their inbox. A fake profile wearing their face. The law watches. And does nothing specific.
India has made legislative strides. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 modernised criminal law. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 acknowledged data rights. But acknowledgement is not protection. Modernisation is not justice. What women need is not another scattered provision buried inside a larger statute : they need a dedicated legal framework that names cyber harassment for what it is, treats it as the gendered crime that it is, and builds procedure around the survivor rather than the system.
The internet is not going anywhere. Neither is the harassment : not until the law decides to show up for women the way women have always been expected to show up for everything else.
Digital safety is not a privilege. It is not a feature. It is a right : and it is time Indian law started treating it like one.
FAQ
Q1. Is there a specific law in India that directly addresses cyber harassment of women?
No. India currently has no standalone legislation exclusively addressing cyber harassment as a gendered crime. Women seeking legal remedy must navigate a combination of provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Information Technology Act 2000, and other allied statutes — none of which were designed with the specific experience of female cyber harassment victims in mind.
Q2. What should a woman do if she is being harassed online in India?
A woman facing online harassment can file a complaint at her nearest cyber crime police station or through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in. She should document all evidence screenshots, messages, links before reporting. Legal provisions under BNS Sections 77, 79, and IT Act Sections 66C and 67 may apply depending on the nature of the harassment.
Q3. Why does underreporting of cyber harassment remain so high in India?
Underreporting persists due to a combination of social stigma, fear of being blamed, lack of awareness about available legal remedies, and a widespread distrust of how law enforcement handles such complaints. Many women also fear that reporting will escalate the harassment rather than stop it.
