‘After Covid, cases of online harassment spiked by 5 times’

Cases of online harassment have seen an increase by five times since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma said.

Speaking at a digital dialogue, “Addressing Sexual and Gender-based Violence in the Post COVID World”, organised by Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Sharma said, “While earlier we would record 300 complaints of online harassment, this shot up to 1,500 post the Covid-19 pandemic.”

She added that following the work from home culture induced by the lockdown, the instances of online harassment have increased significantly in the absence of “etiquettes of online working”.