NEW DELHI: Cybercrime complaints against women have nearly doubled in five years, crossing 2.5 lakh in 2025. Data presented by the Ministry of Home Affairs in response to a Rajya Sabha question asked by Kanimozhi Somu shows that online and social media crimes —covering cyberstalking, impersonation, identity theft, and harassment—surged 140%, from 72,301 complaints in 2021 to 1,73,766 in 2025.
Sexual-content-related categories rose 47% over the same period. Taken together, complaints have gone from 1,24,349 to 2,50,423 — effectively doubling within five years.
Within these numbers, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) complaints rose nearly fivefold, from 2,109 in 2021 to 10,431 in 2025. Fake profile and impersonation cases are up nearly 200%, reaching 46,784. Sexually obscene content complaints more than tripled to 37,743. Identity theft jumped 224%, climbing to 34,533 cases.
Cyberbullying, stalking, and sexting complaints doubled to 45,832. The sharp rise across these categories points to the growing exploitation of social media ecosystems — platforms where fake identities can be constructed quickly, harmful content circulates at scale, and victims often have limited recourse.
A notable anomaly cuts through this otherwise upward trend: rape-content complaints collapsed from 30,574 in 2022 to 4,261 in 2024 before partially recovering to 8,780 in 2025 — suggesting reclassification of offences rather than a genuine decline. A broad dip across all categories in 2023, followed by a sharp rebound, raises further questions about consistency in reporting or data categorisation.
The government’s response foregrounds institutional inputs: `132.93 crore allocated under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme, cyber forensic laboratories established in 33 states and union territories, and over 24,600 trained law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, and judicial officers.
The MP explicitly sought state-wise data on cases resolved, cases pending, and average resolution time. The government’s reply addresses none of it — no FIR conversion rates, no prosecution data, no conviction figures. The absence of enforcement metrics is not a technicality.