Lok Sabha Question No. 3665 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-17
Subject: Digital Safety Curriculum and Online Harassment of Women
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3665

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 17.03.2021

## DIGITAL SAFETY CURRICULUM ONLINE HARASSMENT OF WOMEN

## 3665.   SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI SHRI RAM MOHAN NAIDU KINJARAPU:

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state:-

- (a) whether  the  Ministry  has  provided  any  guidelines/inputs  to  the  Ministry  of  Education  on  including  digital safety curriculum in schools as well as colleges and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has issued any guidelines to social media intermediaries to counter online harassment of women and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (c) whether the Ministry has conducted any security trainings for women to deal with online threats during the pandemic and if so, the details thereof and if not, the details of plans by the Government, if any, to deal with the same?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a): National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)  has  developed  Information and Communication  Technology  (ICT)  curriculum  for  teachers  and  students  in  school  education.  As  a  part  of  this curriculum, safety, security and ethics in the cyber world are being introduced as separate chapters in ICT, IT and Computer  Science  textbooks  for  class  9  to  12.  The  cyber  safety  components  have  also  been  introduced  into  the course content of ICT curriculum for students till class 8 . Ministry of Home Affairs has published a handbook for Adolescents/Students on Cyber Safety, in order to make them aware about various types of cyber-crimes and how to protect themselves from such crimes. This handbook is available on www.mha.gov.in and www.cybercrime.gov.in. This handbook is also shared on NCERT website by Ministry of Education.

Under Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) Project Phase II implemented by the Ministry, so far 68,251  candidates  have  been  trained/under-going  training  in  various  formal/non-formal  courses  in  information security  through  52  institutions  (further,  5  Technical  Universities  participating  under  the  project  have  reported around 2.74 lakh candidates as trained/under-going training in formal courses in their respective affiliated colleges).

Further,  as  a  part  of  awareness  activity  under  ISEA  Project  Phase  II,  792  awareness  workshops  on  information security  have  been  organized  through  direct/virtual  mode  for  school  and  college  students  covering  1,30,199 participants. Awareness material in the form of handbook, posters, brochures, videos, etc. are also made available for download on the website www.isea.gov.in and www.infosecawareness.in.

(b):  The social media platforms are intermediaries as defined in the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified under the IT Act, specifies 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, inter alia, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, harmful to children in any way or violates any law for the time being in force, etc. The Rules provide for a robust grievance redressal mechanism as also reporting and expeditious removal of content breaching bodily privacy, sexually explicit or morphed imagery of the individual concerned.

(c):  Under the ISEA Project Ph.-II, during the pandemic, 98 online awareness workshops on Information Security have been organized covering 24,558 participants, which inter-alia includes an estimated 40% women participants (approx.). Three handbooks on information/cyber security awareness exclusively for women on the topics of 'Online Safety tips for Working Women @ Home', 'Information Security Awareness for Women - Basic things you need to know  &  External  threats  in  the  cyber  world'  and  'Digital  Parenting  -A  Guide  for  Responsible  use  of  Digital Resources by family' have been shared with various stakeholders. Awareness material in the form of handbooks, posters,  brochures,  short-videos,  etc.  was  provided  for  'eRakshabandhan'  and  'CybHER'  initiatives  organized  by CID, Andhra Pradesh and Women Safety Wing, Telangana Police to create awareness exclusively for women and children in respective States.

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