CYBER HARASSMENT AND GENDER-BASED CRIME IN INDIA: A CRITICAL STUDY OF SEXTORTION, CYBERSTALKING AND DOXXING

Author

Rekha Rani


Abstract

 Cyber harassment threatens equal participation in India's digital public sphere through coercion, persistent surveillance and exposure of personal information. This paper examines sextortion, cyberstalking and doxxing using descriptive secondary-data analysis and a critical reading of Indian law. The quantitative core comprises registered cybercrimes against women across all thirty-six States and Union Territories during 2021–2023, supplemented by national cybercrime totals and published studies of online abuse. Registered cases against women increased from 10,730 to 19,510, an 81.8 per cent rise. Karnataka accounted for 35.9 per cent of 2023 total and 54.2 per cent of national increase across period. These findings indicate substantial growth and concentration in recorded cases, without establishing population prevalence or identifying contribution of each harassment subtype. Evidence from Amnesty International and Plan International illustrates how platform abuse and self-reported consequences capture dimensions that police statistics cannot measure. The legal analysis identifies uneven coverage of sexual coercion, gender-specific stalking and harmful disclosure, alongside February 2026 acceleration of intimate-image complaint responses. The paper recommends separate behavioural indicators, linked complaint and case tracking, confidential evidence preservation and independently evaluated survivor services. Effective protection requires measuring safety and continued digital participation alongside criminal justice outcomes.



Keywords

cyber harassment; gender-based violence; sextortion; cyberstalking; doxxing; India; secondary-data analysis.



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References


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