The Cyber Aashvast project, an initiative of the cybercrime cell of Gujarat Police inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah back in December 2019, has been set up to categorically deal with different kinds of online crimes such as financial crimes, identity theft, and even online bullying and harassment. The Anti Cyber-Bullying Unit is one of the four units that work under the Cyber Aashvast project, which deals with cases of online stalking, harassment, bullying, using morphed pictures, sexual harassment and has a dedicated team of police personnel and counsellors to help the victims, while retaining their confidentiality.
As per the officials of Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell, around 5000 people with an overwhelming majority of young women were bullied, harassed and stalked on social media. The data revealed by the Gujarat Police states that as many as 4,985 complaints have been made by victims from January 2020 to July 2021.
The deputy commissioner of police, Amit Vasava said that among the 5,000 complaints received, most of the complaints were from young women not only from Ahmedabad but all across Gujarat. Complaints pertaining to staling or indecent comments made on social media websites were registered.
Many cases pertaining to fake accounts did not fall under the Information Technology Act to be accounted as a criminal act, the anti-cyberbullying unit took action by disabling the accounts and counseled the victims. In most cases of bullying or stalking, the accused was known to the victim. The unit started to counsel the female victims by four women officers from the cell who have been trained at the National Institue of Mental Health and Neuroscience in Bengaluru.
