Statute needed to curb gender-based cyber crime

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Statute needed to curb gender-based cyber crime

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• Safety of women: The usual debate on women safety focuses on how to protect women, but protection and safety (security) are different things. The problem is that the social space is so unequal that women aren't even able to participate equally. That has to be restructured now.
• Covid impact: Since physical spaces are all ruled out in the Covid world, women have no places to get together. So digital is the only space, but it's neither equal nor safe. The cyber violence against women has forced many to stay off.
• VAWG: The cyber Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is a serious threat, that has pushed women off of digital spaces, globally. There's an urgent need to overhaul, and sensitise, these spaces.
• Nature of violence: The cyber violence has broken down the porous wall between online and offline. Worse, it is anonymous and non-confrontational in digital domains. Just as society is inequitable, so is digital cyber-space. Cyber harassment may be called 'passive' by some, but is deeply damaging.
• Worldwide: For some time, gender-based cyber crime was labelled a 'first world problem', but cheaper data and smartphones made it a global problem. What doesn't matter is age, religion, caste, class, and what matters is gender.
• Female body: What's happening is the constant fetishisation of women and their physical bodies. That breeds violence. And that is deepened by the skewed power structure in society. So digital attacks continue unabated. The "Bois locker room" crisis highlighted how shameless and dangerous the rape culture has become.
• Learning: The big learning was the total lack of resources to hold such violent people accountable for crimes of voyeurism, blackmailing and harassment. All that's happening is strengthening of toxic masculinity, and misogyny. 
• What the average woman hears: In addition to the usual misogyny in real world, now she hears cyber-threats, rape and death threats as well. Many women have totally lost their sense of self-worth due to consistent objectification. When women report cyber-harassment, the reactions they get make the agony deeper. Gender stereotypes work their way. "Organised misogyny" is the genesis of cyber VAWG.
• Global survey: Plan International's global survey speaks for awareness on opportunities and risks in being online. 

1. Solution - India can start with a digital sensitisation curriculum along with state-funded data on online gender-based violence
2. Police and judiciary need sensitisation to help women bridge the digital divide
3. A targeted legislation to tackle the VAWG menace is now needed. The IT Act and IPC aren't helpful, as they were made for primarily e-commerce and a different world (pre-digital) altogether, respectively.

• Summary: India now needs a dedicated statute to handle digital violence against women.

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