Lok Sabha Question No. 4259 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-13
Subject: Cyber Crime
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION NO. 4259

TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.12.2019

## CYBER CRIME

## 4259.  SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA :

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of cyber crimes that have been committed against women and children inthe last three years;
- (b) the State-wise statistics of cyber crimes particularly in Delhi;
- (c) the crimes that are characterized as cyber crimes;
- (d) the laws which are applicable for cyber crimes in the country; and
- (e) the steps taken by the Ministry to curb cyber crimes against women and children?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

- (a) National  Crime  Records  Bureau  (NCRB)  compiles  and  publishes  statistics  on crimes in its publication 'Crime in India'. The published reports are available till the year 2017, which includes data of cyber crime against women and children also.
- (b)      Details of State/UT-wise number of cyber crimes including the State of Delhi in the past three year is at Annexure.

(c)  &  (d)  The  Information Technology Act, 2000 has provisions to deal with cyber crime against  women  and  children.  Sections  66E,  67,  and  67A  of  the  Act  provide  for  the punishment and fine for voyeurism, publishing or transmitting of obscene/sexually-explicit material in electronic form.  Section 67B  of  the Act specifically provides stringent punishment for publishing, browsing or transmitting child pornography in electronic form. Further,  sections  354A  and  354D  of  Indian  Penal  Code  provide  punishment  for  cyber bullying and cyber stalking.

Section  79  of  the  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  provides  for  certain  due diligence  to  be  followed  by  Intermediaries  failing  which  they would  be  liable.  The Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 notified under section 79 of  the  Act,  inter  alia,  specify  that  the  intermediaries  shall  inform  the  users  of  computer resource  not  to  host,  display,  upload,  modify,  publish,  transmit,  update  or  share  any information  that  is  grossly  harmful,  defamatory,  obscene,  pornographic,  paedophilic, harms minor in any way; violates any law for the time being in force etc.

- (e)     'Police'  and 'Public Order' are State subjects as per the  Constitution of India; and States are primarily responsible for prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes through their law enforcement machinery.  The Law Enforcement Agencies take legal action as per provisions of law against the cyber crime offenders. However, the Central Government has taken a number of legal, technical and administrative measures to prevent cyber crimes. These inter alia, include the following:
- (i) Government  periodically  blocks  the  websites  containing  extreme  child  sexual  abuse material (CSAM) based on INTERPOL's 'worst of list' received through Central Bureau of  Investigation  (CBI),  the  national  nodal  agency  for  Interpol  in  India.  Department  of Telecom  (DoT)  on  11.7.2018  has  issued  instructions  to  block  2657  number  of  such websites.
- (ii) Government  has  issued  an  order  to  concerned  Internet  Service  Providers  (ISPs)  to work out a suitable arrangement forreceiving Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), UK list of CSAM  websites/webpages  on  a  dynamic  basis and block access to child pornography webpages/websites.
- (iii) DoT has requested all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make suitable arrangement to spread awareness among their subscribers about the use of parental control filters in the end-user machines through messages of email, invoices, SMS, website, etc.
- (iv) Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued guidelines on 18.08.2017 to schools on the safe and secure use ofInternet. This circular directs schools to install effective  firewalls,  filtering  and  monitoring  software  mechanisms  in  all  the  computers and deploy effective security policies.
- (v) Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  (MHA)  is  implementing  a  comprehensive  central  sector scheme,  namely  'Centre  for  Cyber  Crime  Prevention  against  Women  and  Children (CCPWC)', funded under Nirbhaya Fund to handle all issues related to check all cybercrime against women and children including child pornography.
- (vi) National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has published a booklet on 'Child Victims of Cyber Crime -Legal Tool Kit' as a guide for investigating officers for better understanding of the cyber crime related laws in simple language.
- (vii) POCSO E-box  portal  by  NCPCR  was  opened  for  reporting  of  cyber  crime  targeting children  on  23.06.2017.  NCPCR  has  now  enhanced  the  scope  of  POCSO  E-box  on 4.11.2017 to also handle cyber bullying, cyber stalking, morphing of images and child pornography. The E-Box is also available as mobile app at Google/Apple Play Store.
- (viii) Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  issued  an  Advisory  on  4.1.2012  on  Preventing  & Combating  Cyber  Crime  against  Women  and  Children,  wherein  it  was  advised  to States/Union  Territories  to  specifically  combat  the  crimes  in  forms  of  cyber  stalking, cyberbullying, child pornography and exposure to sexually explicit material etc.
- (ix) MHA  has  launched  the  'National  Database  on  Sexual  Offenders'  (NDSO)  on  20th September 2018 to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies.
- (x) In  order  to  facilitate  States/UTs,  MHA  on  19th  February  2019  launched  an  online analytic  tool  for  police  called  'Investigation  Tracking  System  for  Sexual  Offences'  to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases in accordance with the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018.
- (xi) To prevent such crimes and to speed up investigation, Central Government  has  taken steps  to  spread  awareness  about  cyber crimes, issue  of  alerts/advisories,  capacity building/training    of    law    enforcement  personnel/      prosecutors/      judicial      officers, improving cyber forensics facilities etc. The Government has also launched the online National  Cyber  Crime  Reporting  Portal,  www.cybercrime.gov.in  to  enable  citizens  to report  complaints  pertaining  to  all  types  of  cyber  crimes  with  special  focus  on  cyber crimes against women and children.

Further,  to  spread  awareness  on  cyber  crime,  several  steps  have  been  taken  that include  dissemination  of  messages  on  cyber  crime  through  MHA  Twitter  handle @CyberDost,  Radio  campaign,  publishing  of  Handbook  for  Adolescents  /  Students, publishing  of  'Information  Security  Best  practices'  for  the  benefit  of  Govt.  Officials, organizing  of  Cyber  Safety  and  Security  Awareness  week,  in  association  with  police department in different States/UTs etc.

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## Annexure

## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) & (b) TO THE LOK SABHA UN-STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  4259  FOR  13.12.2019  ASKED  BY  SHRI  PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA REGARDING CYBER CRIME

## State/UT-wise Cases Registered (CR), under Cyber Crimes during 2015-2017

| SL   | State/UT          |   2015 |   2016 |   2017 |
|------|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|
| 1    | Andhra Pradesh    |    536 |    616 |    931 |
| 2    | Arunachal Pradesh |      6 |      4 |      1 |
| 3    | Assam             |    483 |    696 |   1120 |
| 4    | Bihar             |    242 |    309 |    433 |
| 5    | Chhattisgarh      |    103 |     90 |    171 |
| 6    | Goa               |     17 |     31 |     13 |
| 7    | Gujarat           |    242 |    362 |    458 |
| 8    | Haryana           |    224 |    401 |    504 |
| 9    | Himachal Pradesh  |     50 |     31 |     56 |
| 10   | Jammu &Kashmir    |     34 |     28 |     63 |
| 11   | Jharkhand         |    180 |    259 |    720 |
| 12   | Karnataka         |   1447 |   1101 |   3174 |
| 13   | Kerala            |    290 |    283 |    320 |
| 14   | Madhya Pradesh    |    231 |    258 |    490 |
| 15   | Maharashtra       |   2195 |   2380 |   3604 |
| 16   | Manipur           |      6 |     11 |     74 |
| 17   | Meghalaya         |     56 |     39 |     39 |
| 18   | Mizoram           |      8 |      1 |     10 |
| 19   | Nagaland          |      0 |      2 |      0 |
| 20   | Odisha            |    386 |    317 |    824 |
| 21   | Punjab            |    149 |    102 |    176 |
| 22   | Rajasthan         |    949 |    941 |   1304 |
| 23   | Sikkim            |      1 |      1 |      1 |
| 24   | Tamil Nadu        |    142 |    144 |    228 |
| 25   | Telangana         |    687 |    593 |   1209 |
| 26   | Tripura           |     13 |      8 |      7 |
| 27   | Uttar Pradesh     |   2208 |   2639 |   4971 |
| 28   | Uttarakhand       |     48 |     62 |    124 |
| 29   | West Bengal       |    398 |    478 |    568 |
| 30   | A &NIslands       |      6 |      3 |      3 |
| 31   | Chandigarh        |     77 |     26 |     32 |
| 32   | D&N Haveli        |      0 |      1 |      1 |
| 33   | Daman &Diu        |      1 |      0 |      0 |
| 34   | Delhi UT          |    177 |     98 |    162 |
| 35   | Lakshadweep       |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 36   | Puducherry        |      0 |      2 |      5 |
|      | TOTAL             |  11592 |  12317 |  21796 |

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