Cyber trolls harassing women online will now be dealt with severe punishment, as the home ministry will soon release a portal where women can drop complaints. The scheme, named Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC), will come under the Nirbhaya Fund, and will be jointly developed by the home ministry and the women and child development ministry.
"The home ministry gave us the scheme, under which there will be a portal where women who are harassed online will be able to register their complaints. The portal is sanctioned, and the cyber cell of the home ministry will monitor the portal, and act on the complaints," said an official of the WCD ministry. The CCPWC scheme will cost Rs 244.32 crore, and the money will be utilised from under the Nirbhaya Fund.
The move was hinted by WCD minister Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday in a press conference in Delhi, where she spoke of the abuse that women face online. Citing the example of a journalist, who bought the idea to her, Gandhi said that the journalist had registered her name in a matrimonial site where she faced harassment. "She was called repeatedly, was stalked, and her parents were involved, too," she said. Gandhi also spoke of a "separate unit" in the home ministry which will deal with the issue.
The ministry has also worked on certain guidelines that matrimonial websites musts follow. On Tuesday, Gandhi had also said that the sites were unwilling to come on board initially. "We have worked with NASSCOM, and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) under the telecom ministry and the ministry of home affairs to formulate best practices and guidelines for matrimonial sites to follow. These are now with DeitY to issue as advisory," said another official in the WCD ministry.
The guidelines, the official informed, are three-pronged. "There were a lot of reports of fraudulent practices from matrimonial websites, and harassment as reported by single women. These draft guidelines, that were decided in the last couple of weeks, will be soon notified under the Information Technology Act, 2005," said the official.
The proposed guidelines, the official said, will now make it mandatory for any person to furnish an ID proof before being allowed to access profiles in matrimonial sites. Apart from that, each matrimonial site will need to appoint a nodal officer for dealing with complaints placed by women. The WCD ministry will periodically look at the complaints received and their progress, and will make the information public.
