Women on online platforms and their safety concerns: A Case Study of Navi Mumbai

ABSTRACT

Albert Einstein once said that our technology has exceeded our humanity. It means the world of communication is ever changing due to the developments in the field of science and technology. To fulfill the need of communication, social media play an important role. Social media is a means of interaction to share and exchange views with virtual communities. After ‘tech savvy’ it is the ‘social media savvy’ that has become synonym with today’s generation in India. About 2/3rd of Indians spend time on different social networking sites like facebook, twitter, you tube, , etc. this rapid expansion of digital technology has transformed the lives of millions of Indians. According to the Committee on the Empowerment of Women, in its Fourth Report on “Cyber Crimes and Cyber Safety of Women,” highlights the growing threat posed by cyber offences and emphasizes the urgent need for stronger legal, technological, and institutional safeguards Cybercrimes targeting women have increased significantly in recent years. Crimes such as cyberstalking, online harassment, cyberbullying, identity theft, sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and the circulation of deepfake content have become increasingly common. The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence has further intensified these threats by enabling the creation of realistic fake images and videos that can damage a woman’s dignity, reputation, and mental well-being. According to data cited in the report, cybercrimes against women increased by nearly 239 percent between 2017 and 2022, while cybercrimes involving children witnessed an even more alarming rise. Social media in India has become a weapon of patriarchs, where an attempt is made to control, intimidate and eventually silence women. Shaming and harming women is an age old practice, except that real time information sharing through technology makes the outreach for greater and the damage is huge. There are instances where celebrities were targeted for wearing a dress which was inappropriate according to them. Mithali Raj, Captain of Indian Women’s cricket team posted a picture wearing a spaghetti top brought lot of trolling for not being “sanskaari”. Such trolling is a perfect example to show the gender stereotype where a woman is not given freedom to wear what she wants. This paper tries to explore the various ways in which social media has targeted women atrocities and injustices to celebrities or a commoner.

The main objectives of this paper are:

To develop an in-depth understanding about the growing significance of social media among the youth of highlighting various issues and problems.

To understand the various instances in which social media has targeted the women injustices and atrocities.

Bringing out the various ways in which social media can be source of their voice to reach the common man for the injustice with women.

KEYWORDS: Social media, online, cybercrime, atrocities, Display Pic, Status, Internet

METHOD OF STUDY: To understand the impact of being online on women, a universe(navi mumbai) was selected. The data was collected among the participants consisted of 200 college students at renowned girls college of Navi Mumbai. A convenient snowball method was used for data collection by a survey questionnaire developed on google form. Among the participants, 90% were between the ages of 18-23. Of the college students sampled, 61% were urban while 39% were of rural background. Random selection of WhatsApp group was done to collect the sample. The soft copy of written questions was created to collect the data. Questions in the survey included the following areas: demographics, extent of usage of social media and any situation which they felt is because of their gender. The questionnaire was sent to the respondents through WhatsApp messenger and expected a reply through the same media. The questions on the instrument were designed to satisfy the research questions as set forth in the introduction of this study. Therefore, the emailed questionnaire was considered to have content validity. It was an exploratory method of research.

INTRODUCTION: The world is every changing due to the advancement in the realm of science and technology. These days it is hard to escape from presence of technology. Prior to all technologies there were two main ways in which people communicate using media. The first one was public broadcast media such as television, radio and newspapers. The other one was dyadic communication. Technology is evolving at a very fast rate, and what most people did not even think could be real a few years ago, is now become a reality. Social media is one of such innovation. It should not be seen primarily the platform upon which people post, but rather s the content that are posted on these platforms. Social media is a rising trend in the world today. Communication skills are exemplified by the use of social media networking. Social media is a place where college girls interact, create and share information and ideas to friends. They share these ideas not only to friends but also virtual friends. This platform is very helpful in keeping the people stay connected with each other whether they are far away and also helps them to be updated. Social media cannot be seen primarily as a platform where they post, but rather as the contents that re posted on these platforms. These contents vary from region to region and person to person. Most of the college girls are using face-book, twitter, Orkut and Instagram which give scope for giving information to all over the world. The techno-savy girls know to avail the technological advancement to enhance their knowledge.

The research indicated that college students love to send and receive messages from their family and friends. The situation is like they live and breathe through this virtual communication medium. It can be inferred from the fact that 90% of responded to the questionnaire sent through whatsapp. The cultural norms and values makes us who we are, what we feel connected to and how we behave. “The day starts with Social media and ends with social media”, said one of the respondents. This is not for one respondent but with most of them ( 86 %). As per Indian culture we love to greet our elders, friends and family, so the new way of doing the same is through social media (87%). They are sending good morning and good night messages on daily routine and during festivals they find it the best way to show their feelings and gesture of wishing through social media (95 %). Their Display Picture is again the best way of showing their daily happenings in life (92 %). The messaging is not limited to friends but to family and neighbourhood too. The social media is now part of their life. They are spending more time on social media.

When asked how many times they log on to social media

When it comes to sharing content, they love to chat in person, in groups, love to send videos of various issues like hilarious, social issues, enjoy sharing cultural vibes and festivity and latest happening in society. So, it can be said that social media messenger is helping to retain our family bond and in fact made the bond more affectionate.

But there is always a growing concern that they are worried about their data being data or picture taken away without their concern or sometimes they are receiving comments on their pictures and videos which makes them restricted and always have a feeling that they may be trolled and always love to keep their account private and not open to all or public. The media which gives freedom to everybody is not safe for women to be online. Various questions asked about their growing concern about social media, and it was found that they are facing lot of difficulties to be online and to be part of social media.

According to report of United Nations, almost 35% women face some of the other kind of violence. But you will be surprise to know that 60 percent of women face cyber bullying or trolling on social media all over the world. Because of strict laws in the country the men do show much pattern of violence but as soon as they come of social media, where the control is not governed, they start trolling women which is a kind of violence. This violence may not be physical but it affects the mental health of women in a very extreme manner. So all over the world, women feels unsafe same way on social media as they feel while going on unknown and strange roads or market or on malls.

According to Planet International report, 60 percent of women faces cyber trolling and out of which 20 percent has to close their accounts as well. The survey was done on women of 15 to 25 years of age.

The pattern of women trolling on various social media platforms is:

Source: Planet International

Recently a survey was done around Delhi and nearby areas to know the pattern of women trolling; it was found that the cyber violence has increased up to 26 percent. When it comes to punishments to be given against the crime, it was found that out of 40 percent cases registered; only 25 percent gets punished while rest of them gets freed which is again a growing concern and alarming situation for women.

According to Viasetsavings.com, which also takes care of online survey says that about 74 percent of women have to block people for some or the other reason as she finds comments which are not pleasing or are very disturbing. When it comes to Instagram women are more vulnerable to men in trolling. The motive of social networking website is always to make people come closer, but it has given a weapon to men to exploit women. Because of this 59 percent women wants to keep their account private whereas only 44 percent men keeps their accounts private. The inequality which we created in our real world can be seen to be governed in virtual world as well.

Twenty-year-old Gurmehar Kaur has been in the spotlight after raising her voice against violence on campuses in the wake of clashes in Ramjas College last week. Kaur has been advocating peace — from endorsing stronger Indo-Pak ties to free speech among youth — for nearly a year now.

Who is Gurmehar Kaur?

Gurmehar Kaur was born to Rajvinder Kaur and Captain Mandeep Singh in Jalandhar. She lost her father at the age of two, after a Rashtriya Rifles camp came under militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999. He was one of the seven personnel killed in the attack. Kaur resides in Delhi, where she is studying English Literature at Lady Sri Ram College for Women, Delhi University. She is also the ambassador for Postcards for Peace, a charitable organisation that helps eliminate any form of discrimination. Gurmehar Kaur launched a #ProfileForPeace campaign last April, advocating peace between India and Pakistan. “If there was no war between us, my father would still be here,” she had said. In her viral video, Gurmehar asked both governments to “stop pretending” and “solve the problem”. She said, “I am questioning the caliber of leadership of both nations; we cannot dream of becoming a first world country with third world leadership.” Kaur is part of the ‘Save DU campaign’ following the clashes in Ramjas College last week where activists of the AVBP allegedly clashed with students, where JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid were invited for a seminar. While Khalid and Rashid did not turn up for the event, ABVP students still went ahead with their violent protest, stoning the seminar hall. The Save DU campaign supports students’ right to freedom of speech. Her poster protest image, shared on Facebook, reads, “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP”. The viral post incited reactions from the ruling establishment as well as from politicians cutting across party lines.

Many social media users deemed Gurmehar anti-national because she wanted peaceful relationship with Pakistan, a country that instigated the Kargil war during which she lost her father, according to the claims made by Gurmehar in the said video. However, Captain Mandeep Singh was killed 10 days after the war. Virender Sehwag, in an attempt to take a jibe at Gurmehar Kaur, tweeted a photo of himself holding a Photoshopped placard that read, "I didn't score two triple centuries, my bat did". He captioned the photo "bat me hai dum" along with a #BharatJaisiJagahNahi.

The political twist: Things escalated when Gurmehar claimed that she had received rape threats. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, turning the issue political, tweeted saying he would meet the Lieutenant Governor Of Delhi to demand action against ABVP goondaism and against those who threatened Kaur with rape and death. Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home, initially said that "someone is definitely doing politics over this issue" of campus violence and asked "who is polluting this young girl's mind", possibly hinting at Arvind Kejriwal because of Kaur's association with the Aam Aadmi Party in the past.

However, he later clarified that he meant "leftists". "Let her be. Don't disturb the girl. Let us not comment on her tweet. My message is to the far leftists to not pollute young minds. Let her be in herself and her world. She is being hijacked. Leftists are those who celebrate killing of our security forces and support China", the minister told India Today. Rijiju's commentary did not end here he went on to say that the Captain's "soul must be weeping on seeing his daughter being misguided by those who celebrate the bodies of martyrs". He justified his comment "she has the freedom to speak her mind. She has all the right to do whatever she wants. So don't disturb her" and tweeted saying "everyone has right of views but she said Pakistan didn't kill our brave martyr & India should shun war. India never perpetrated violence!". Harayana Minister Anil Vij too entered argument by offering his 'highly insightful' opinion and said "those supporting Gurmehar Kaur are Pro-Pakistan, therefore such people should be thrown out of the country". Indian woman wrestlers Babita Phogat and Geeta Phogat joined Virender Sehwag and Randeep Hooda by criticisng Gurmehar. "Gurmehar Kaur's view that her father was killed by war and not Pakistan was wrong for me. It's against our nation and martyrs," said Babita Phogat. Her elder sister Geeta Phogat too supported Babita's views and said, "If you speak against nation, people will obviously not like it. Irrespective of gender, the person won't be spared."

Conclusion and recommendation

#LAWS: Recognizing the seriousness of the issue, the Government of India has introduced several legal and institutional mechanisms to combat cybercrime. Existing laws such as the

*Information Technology Act 2000,

*Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012,

*provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provide a legal framework for addressing cyber offences.

*Institutions such as the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP),

*cyber forensic laboratories, and One Stop Centers have been established to strengthen prevention, reporting, investigation, and victim support systems.

#PUBLIC AWARENESS: various campaigns conducted by government to educate the citizens to education about cyberthreats and reporting mechanisms. These include

*Caller tune campaigns, and SMS alerts.

*newspaper advertisements, television and radio broadcasts, cinema hall screenings, social media outreach, school awareness programs and community engagement initiatives.

*Special emphasis has been placed on promoting the Cybercrime Helpline Number 1930.

*the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal www.cybercrime.gov.in

An email can be send to Women and child welfare department. Email : Complaint-mwcd@gov.on

#CELEBRITY MESSAGES: When celebrities speak, people take the words. And so to make cyber security of women online, various celebrities are coming forward for awareness. Campaigns featuring public figures such as Amitabh Bachchan have helped spread messages about cyber hygiene and fraud prevention.

#SCHOOLS AND COLLEGE PARTICIPATION: Schools, colleges, NCC, NSS, and NYKS volunteers have been actively engaged in cyber safety education, reaching lakhs of students and teachers across the country. These initiatives demonstrate the importance of collective responsibility in promoting cyber awareness and reducing vulnerability to online threats.

#ONGOING PROJECTS: Regular check and studies need to be conducted for understanding the impact of technology and so The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has complemented these efforts through the Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) Project. Thousands of awareness workshops have been conducted across the country, covering students, teachers, government officials, women, parents, and general users. Special handbooks and multilingual awareness materials have been developed specifically for women, focusing on online safety, cyber hygiene, privacy protection, and legal rights. These resources are designed to empower women with the knowledge necessary to recognize and respond to cyber threats.

#HELPLINE: Another important initiative is the National Commission for Women’s 24×7 Women Helpline (14490). This provides digital complaint registration, counselling services, referrals to police and legal authorities, and information about government support schemes.

#NCW EFFORTS: The NCW has also launched digital platforms such as the Women Safety Audit Platform and the “Her Legal Guide” mobile application, aimed at increasing women’s awareness of their rights and available remedies. These initiatives reflect a growing focus on victim support and legal empowerment.

#EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION: To address this need, the government has invested heavily in capacity building. Under various schemes, cyber forensic laboratories have been established across numerous States and Union Territories, and thousands of law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, and judicial officers have received training in cybercrime investigation and digital forensics. The National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory (NCFL) provides advanced forensic support, enabling investigators to analyze digital evidence and respond more effectively to complex cyber offences

Cyber safety is no longer merely a technological concern; it is a social, legal, and human rights issue. Protecting women in cyberspace requires coordinated action by governments, educational institutions, technology companies, law enforcement agencies, civil society organizations, and individual users. Strong laws, effective enforcement, advanced technology, widespread awareness, and a victim-centric approach must work together to create a safer digital environment.

As India continues its journey toward becoming a digitally empowered society, ensuring the cyber safety of women must remain a national priority. A secure digital ecosystem will not only protect women from online harm but also enable them to participate confidently in the social, economic, and technological opportunities of the digital age.

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About Authors:-

1.Ms.Kumkum Choudhary, Student Researcher, BA LL.B 3RD YEAR, TMV’s Lokmanya Tilak Law College, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.

2.Prof.Dr. Binu Singh, Visiting Faculty, TMV’s Lokmanya Tilak Law College, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbinu-singh-17349152?trk=contact-info