Citizens are being empowered and their lives transformed with the growth of the internet and proliferation of applications, products & services on it, the Government informed the parliament recently. However, with the growth of the internet, cyber crimes are also on the increase.
Over 44735 of cases were registered in 2019 and 51058 in 2020, the government informed the Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session.
According to the data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the cybercrime cases registered in 2017, 2018 and 2019 were 21796, 27248 and 44546 respectively.
Cyber crime is a criminal activity that involves the use of one or more computer and a network. A target could be an individual, an organisation or a government. Financial fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal trade, online stalking, data theft, subversion and espionage are a few examples of cyber crime.
Crimes such as revenge porn and slut shaming also increased on social media platforms. Some, rather occasional controversies are subsumed over a period. However many problems remain and justice delivery mechanisms appear to be very complex and inaccessible to women and the marginalized when it comes to cyber crimes.
As per Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), to strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, it has provided financial assistance to all the States & UTs under Cyber Crime Prevention against Women & Children (CCPWC) scheme to support their efforts for setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, training, and hiring of junior cyber consultants. Cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 28 States. The Central Government has taken steps for spreading awareness about cyber crimes, issuance of alerts, advisories, capacity building, training of law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, judicial officers, improving cyber forensic facilities etc
Apart from it, it has simplified means for justice delivery. However there is a need to spread awareness as well as training law enforcement agencies and improve cyber forensic facilities including properly educating them on gender sensitization.
The government is primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of crimes through law enforcement machinery including cyber crime through their Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). The LEAs is empowered to take legal action as per provisions of law against the offenders. The government must ensure prompt action as per provisions of law against the criminals misusing various means which are otherwise meant to ease the life of common man.
