National Commission for Women Proposes Stronger Cyber Laws to Protect Women from Online Abuse
SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions
Institutions: Ministry of Home Affairs | Ministry of Electronics & IT | Ministry of Women & Child Development
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has released a nationwide legal-reform report proposing tighter cyber-safety laws for women and children. The year-long review included 8 regional and 2 national consultations, producing 200+ reform recommendations to modernise Indiaβs digital safety framework.
The recommendations call for stricter penalties for deepfakes, online stalking, grooming and identity-based cybercrime; 12-hour takedown rules for non-consensual intimate content; and AI-audit and algorithm-transparency obligations for digital platforms. They also seek a Victim Compensation Fund, district-level forensic and psychological support, and anonymous reporting systems to improve access to justice.
The reforms integrate gender-sensitive provisions into the IT Act, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, POCSO, and the new criminal code, aiming to close enforcement gaps and better respond to emerging harms such as deepfakes, AI-enabled abuse, doxxing, impersonation, and sextortion.
By strengthening platform accountability, building forensic capacity, and standardising faster redress mechanisms, the NCW argues that the framework will help women participate in digital, educational, and economic spaces without fear of online violence or privacy loss. The proposals focus particularly on AI-driven manipulation, cross-border data flows, and barriers faced by women in rural and low-income settings, emphasising that online safety is now essential to digital inclusion, mobility, dignity, and public participation.
This initiative advances Digital Indiaβs safety pillar, strengthens institutional capacity for cyber-crime response, supports gender-sensitive tech governance, and aligns with the National Policy for Women. It also anticipates risks from AI-enabled manipulation and cross-platform harms, calling for faster enforcement and coordinated central-state implementation.
Follow the full update here: NCW Report