Cybercrime incidents against women rise by over 28,000 since 2024: Govt in RS

NEw new delhi, o'er 76,650 cybercrime incidents against women such as online shout, obscene contents and stalking were reported on the subject Cyber Crime Reporting Portal in 2025, an increase of 28,322 since 2024, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.In a written reply, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the complaints include cases related to sexually obscene material, sexually explicit acts, rape or gang rape-related sexually abusive content and child sexual abuse material reported online.Sharing year-wise figures of the number of cybercrime incidents related to crimes against women reported on the NCRP in the last five years, the minister said the number of such complaints stood at 52,048 in 2021, 62,224 in 2022, 40,066 in 2023, 48,335 in 2024 and 76,657 in 2025.The data showed that complaints related to sexually obscene material were the highest in 2025 at 37,743, followed by sexually explicit acts at 19,703, rape or gang rape-related sexually abusive content at 8,780 and child sexual abuse material at 10,431.The minister also gave details of incidents reported under the "online and social media related crime" category, which include offences such as cyberstalking, fake profiles and identity theft which showed a rising trend.According to the data, complaints in this category increased from 72,301 in 2021 to 1,31,634 in 2022, 1,41,264 in 2023, 1,57,054 in 2024 and 1,73,766 in 2025.Among these, cyberbullying, stalking or sexting accounted for 45,832 complaints in 2025, while fake or impersonating profiles accounted for 46,784 cases and profile hacking or identity theft for 34,533 cases. Cheating by impersonation accounted for 23,252 complaints during the year.Other incidents reported in 2025 included 11,126 cases of online job fraud, 7,595 cases related to provocative speech for unlawful acts, 2,240 cases of e-mail phishing, 754 cases of impersonating e-mail, 522 cases of intimidating e-mail and 1,128 cases of online matrimonial fraud.In the reply, Kumar said, "Police and Public Order are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. The States/UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes including cybercrime against women through their Law Enforcement Agencies."He added that the Centre supplements the initiatives of states and Union Territories through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for capacity-building of law enforcement agencies."To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes, including cyber crimes against women in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps," the minister said, listing initiatives including financial assistance of ₹132.93 crore under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children scheme.The government has also set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to deal with cyber crimes in a coordinated manner and launched the NCRP portal to enable citizens to report cybercrime incidents, with special focus on crimes against women and children.According to the reply, cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 33 states and UTs and more than 24,600 law enforcement personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers have been trained on cybercrime awareness, investigation and forensics under the scheme.The government also highlighted initiatives such as the National Cyber Forensic Laboratory, the CyTrain online training platform and nationwide awareness campaigns to strengthen cyber safety and response mechanisms.This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.