Cybercrimes targeting women and children reported on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal have crossed 9.54 lakh over the past five years, with 2025 recording.
The highest annual figures across key categories, according to data tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Incidents under online and social media-related crimes surged sharply, rising from 72,301 in 2021 to 1,73,766 in 2025—an increase of over 140 per cent. Overall, this translates to an average of around 524 complaints a day, or nearly two every five minutes.
Cases involving sexual content—including child sexual abuse material, rape-related content and obscene material—also peaked in 2025 at 76,657, after dipping in 2023. Within this category, rape-related abusive content dropped steeply from 30,574 in 2022 to 4,261 in 2024, before rising again to 8,780 in 2025, a fluctuation the government did not explain.
The sharpest increase was seen in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) cases, which grew nearly five-fold from 2,109 in 2021 to 10,431 in 2025. Fake and impersonating profiles nearly tripled to 46,784, while cyberbullying, stalking and sexting complaints more than doubled. Cases of profile hacking and identity theft peaked in 2024 before easing slightly in 2025.
Govt response
The Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament it has allocated ₹132.93 crore under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme. Cyber forensic-cum-training labs have been set up across 33 states and Union Territories, and over 24,600 law enforcement and judicial personnel have been trained.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which operates the portal, also runs a Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre and the CyTrain platform. As of January 31, 2026, over 1.5 lakh police and judicial officers had registered on the platform, with more than 1.42 lakh training certificates issued.
Arrests rise alongside complaints
The government’s Samanvaya platform—an inter-agency coordination and analytics tool—has aided in the arrest of 21,857 accused and processed over 1.49 lakh investigation assistance requests.
Meanwhile, the National Digital Investigation Support Centre in New Delhi has supported more than 13,400 cases so far, highlighting both improved enforcement capacity and the continuing surge in cybercrime complaints.
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