Recognising the growing importance and emerging threats on digital platforms and ensuring women safety, The World University of Design (WUD) – India’s first and only University dedicated to education in the creative domain is hosting Digital Shakti workshop. The workshop focuses on promoting literacy, building awareness about cyber-crimes and recourse available to women to prevent and redress such crimes. The workshop was conducted by Cyber Peace Foundation under the aegis of the National Commission for Women.
Speaking about the workshop, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor, World University of Design (WUD) said, “As the number of digital security incidents and cyber-crimes are bourgeoning, our goal is to create comprehensive awareness amongst women about the counter-measures against such cyber security threats and crimes. Such comprehensive workshops are need of the hour which not only addresses threat on traditional digital mediums like websites, payment gateways, mails etc. but also extends to newer platforms like social media which include threats of violence against women.”
The more common and frequently reported forms of cyber-crimes against women include cyber stalking, cyber pornography, circulating images / video clips of women engaged in intimate acts, morphing, sending obscene / defamatory / annoying messages, online trolling / bullying / blackmailing / threat or intimidation, and email spoofing and impersonation.
According to the official statistics provided by the National Crime Records Bureau, Government of India, Cyber-crimes registered a sharp increase from 11,592 in 2015 to 12,317 in 2016. While cyber-crime has emerged as a major challenge facing law enforcement agencies in the country, women and children remain at risk.
According to a research in 2016 including analysis of media reports (Violence Online in India: Cybercrimes Against Women and Minorities on Social Media, Feminism in India)
- 30% of the respondents said they were not aware of laws to protect them from online harassment
- Only a third of respondents had reported harassment to law enforcement; among them, 38 percent characterized the response as “not at all helpful.”