Lok Sabha Question No. 855 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-05
Subject: Indecent Depiction of Women on Social Media
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Pushpendra Singh Chandel, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 855 TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.02.2021

## INDECENT DEPICTION OF WOMEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA

855.     SHRI KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL: SHRIMATI MALA RAJTA LAXMI SHAH:

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

- (a) whether Government has taken cognizance of indecent and vulgar depiction of women on various digital platform including Over-the-Top (OTT);
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the  corrective/  preventive  measures  being  taken  by  the  Government  in  this regard?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  to  (b)  'Police'  and  'Public  Order'  are  State  subjects  as  per  the  Constitution  of India. States/UTs are primarily responsible for prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes through their law enforcement machinery. These law enforcement  machinery/agencies  under  the  Governments  of  respective  States/UTs take cognizance of indecent and vulgar depiction of women and take legal action as per  provisions  of  law  against  persons  involved  in  indecent  and  vulgar  depiction  of women on various digital platform, including Over-the-Top.

- (c) The details of corrective/preventive measures taken are placed at Annexure.

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## Annexure

1.          Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  approved  a  scheme  namely  'Cyber  Crime Prevention  against  Women  and  Children  (CCPWC)'  under  which  an  online  Cyber Crime reporting portal, (www.cybercrime.gov.in) has been launched to enable public to  report  complaints  pertaining  to  rape/gang  rape  imageries  or  sexually  explicit content,  Child  Pornography/  Child  Sexual  Abuse  Material.  This  portal  facilitates  the public  to  lodge  complaints  anonymously  or  through  Report  and  track  option.  Steps have also been taken to spread awareness, issue of alerts/advisories, training of law enforcement  agencies,  improving  cyber  forensic  facilities  etc.  These  steps  help  to prevent  such  cases  and  speed  up  investigation.  Cyber  Crime  awareness  campaign has been launched through twitter handle (@CyberDost) and radio across the country. Awareness generation programmes and publicity campaigns are done on various laws relating to women and their rights through workshops, cultural programmes, seminars, training programmes, advertisements including in print and electronic /digital media.
2.          Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 (21 of 2000) has provisions regarding cheating by personation (section 66D), violation of privacy (section 66E), publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form (section 67), publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form  (section 67A), publishing  or  transmitting  material  depicting  children  in  sexually  explicit  act,  etc.  in electronic form (section 67B) etc. Rule 3 (2) (b) of Information Technology (Intermediaries  guidelines)  Rules,  2011  provides  for  an  obligation  for  Intermediaries (Social media platforms) to inform users of computer resources not to host, display, upload,  modify,  publish,  transmit,  update  or  share  any  information  that  is  grossly harmful,  harassing,  blasphemous  defamatory,  obscene,  pornographic,  pedophilic, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, etc.
3.          Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development  has  created  a  dedicated  e-mail (complaint-mwcd@gov.in) to address and resolve the issues of hateful conduct  and stalking on Social Media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook with effect from July, 2016.