Govt to protect women, kids from cybercrime

The Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry will soon come up with a mechanism to check posting and circulation of sexual contents on the internet to protect children and women from sexual violence in the cyberspace.

It has decided to develop "a centralised mechanism" along with a new web portal to receive such complaints online and take necessary legal action.

It will also create a mechanism for “real-time” removal or blocking of the offensive material on the cyberspace, and build an international alliance to protect women and children from “the borderless nature of cybercrime.”

The ministry decided to take these measures at a crucial meeting with the stakeholders here on Wednesday in view of the digital space “being increasingly used” to perpetuate violence against women and children. Internet Service Providers Association of India, representatives from various social media agencies and other industry bodies participated in the meeting.

Addressing a press conference organised to highlight the achievements of the ministry in the four years of the Modi government, WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi said that her ministry has initiated a move to provide specially-designed kits to all police stations and hospitals for “immediate medical investigation” into the rape cases.

The cost of the kit will be allocated from the Nirbhaya Fund.

“It (the kit) would be provided to all the police stations and hospitals by the month of July. These kits would contain a complete list of evidence/samples to be collected along with the equipment required to collect the evidence. The kits would be locked and sealed before being sent to forensic labs,” she added.

Maneka said her ministry also had plans to fund the training of information technology specialists and police officers holding charge of the police stations to create a pool of experts for the Union home ministry's special anti-child pornography unit.