Born digital, Born free? A socio-legal study on young women’s experiences of online violence in South India

FOCUS

This report was published in the year 2019 by IT for Change, an NGO based in Bengaluru, India. It has been written by Anita Gurumurthy Amrita Vasudevan and Nandini Chami, all of whom are associated with IT for Change. The report discusses the experiences of young women with online violence and harassment in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It studies cyberviolence through the categories of identity-based cyberbullying and acts of sexual harassment.

The report surveyed 881 college-going women aged 19-23 years anonymously. It also included 14 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and 44 key informant interviews with a range of stakeholders. The report explores the gender dynamic in social interaction mediated through digital modes and evaluates the effectiveness of prevailing legal mechanisms.

The 49-page document is divided into six sections: Background to the research (Section 1); Gender-based cyberviolence and shifting gender norms (Section 2); Women’s experiences of seeking redress for gender-based cyberviolence (Section 3); Conclusions (Section 4); Recommendations (Section 5); and Post-script and questions for further research (Section 6).

    FACTOIDS

  1. Out of 881 young women of diverse identities and experiences, 92 per cent of the respondents owned their own mobile phones and most common applications used are WhatsApp and Facebook. 

  2. About 37 per cent of the respondents reported having faced harassment, abuse and “unwanted behaviour” online. Most common application where respondents faced harassment were Facebook (61 per cent) and WhatsApp (47 per cent).

  3. The report states that 26 per cent of the respondents who faced cyberviolence reported that the perpetrator was known to them, whereas 51 per cent reported that the perpetrator was unknown, and 16 per cent experienced cyberviolence from both known and unknown perpetrators.

  4. Of the 326 respondents who faced cyberviolence, 76 per cent faced trolling for their physical characteristics or social identity. Bullying based on physical attributes emerged as a common form of violation experienced by young women. 

  5. The report finds that 83 per cent of the respondents faced sexual harassment of some form online – cyberstalking, doxing, leaking personal information, fake profiles, explicit images being shared without their consent.

  6. About 29 per cent of the 326 respondents who faced cyberviolence reported that they continued to feel unsafe and scared for their safety, 28 per cent were anxious or depressed, 11 per cent felt helpless, and six per cent reported attempting some form of self-harm. 

  7. Only 13 per cent of the respondents who faced cyberviolence approached college authorities and only 10 per cent sought assistance from the police. The report states that this is due to the lack of awareness that cyberviolence is a crime, hesitance in entering a police station, anxiety that police will trivialize their complaints or handle complaints without sensitivity.


     Focus and Factoids by Saachi Singh.


    PARI Library’s health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.

AUTHOR

Anita Gurumurthy, Amrita Vasudevan, Nandini Chami

COPYRIGHT

IT for Change, Bengaluru

PUBLICATION DATE

2019

TAGS

#online-violence #harassment #women #cybercrime #sexual-harassment

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