Cybercrime against women saw a sharp rise in 2025, with over 76,650 cases reported on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), Parliament was told on Wednesday.
The figure is up by 28,322 cases from 2024, according to data shared in the Rajya Sabha.
In a written reply, minister of state for home affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the complaints include cases related to sexually obscene material, sexually explicit acts, rape or gang rape-related sexually abusive content and child sexual abuse material reported online.
Year-wise data shows 52,048 cases in 2021, 62,224 in 2022, a drop to 40,066 in 2023, followed by 48,335 in 2024 and a sharp jump to 76,657 in 2025.
Among the categories, sexually obscene material accounted for the highest number of complaints in 2025 at 37,743.
This was followed by 19,703 cases involving sexually explicit acts. Complaints linked to rape or gang rape-related content stood at 8,780, while child sexual abuse material accounted for 10,431 cases.
Cases under the “online and social media related crime” category also continued to rise. These include cyberstalking, fake profiles and identity theft.
The numbers in this segment increased from 72,301 in 2021 to 1,31,634 in 2022, 1,41,264 in 2023, 1,57,054 in 2024 and 1,73,766 in 2025.
In 2025, cyberbullying, stalking or sexting made up 45,832 complaints. Fake or impersonating profiles accounted for 46,784 cases, while profile hacking or identity theft stood at 34,533. Cheating by impersonation was reported in 23,252 cases.
Other complaints included 11,126 cases of online job fraud, 7,595 cases of provocative speech for unlawful acts, 2,240 cases of e-mail phishing, 754 cases of impersonating e-mail, 522 cases of intimidating e-mail and 1,128 cases of online matrimonial fraud.
On the government’s role, Kumar said, "Police and Public Order are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. The States/UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes including cybercrime against women through their Law Enforcement Agencies."
He added that the Centre supplements the initiatives of states and Union Territories (UTs) through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for capacity-building of law enforcement agencies.
"To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes, including cyber crimes against women in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps," the minister said.
These include Rs 132.93 crore allocated under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme.
The government has also set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and launched the NCRP portal to allow people to report cybercrime, with a focus on crimes against women and children.
According to the reply, cyber forensic-cum-training labs have been set up in 33 states and UTs. More than 24,600 personnel, including police, prosecutors and judicial officers, have been trained in cybercrime awareness, investigation and forensics.
Other measures include the National Cyber Forensic Laboratory, the CyTrain online training platform and awareness campaigns.
