Victimization of women in cyber space: A case study of universities of Kashmir

Computer and internet are powerful tools. By their very nature they facilitate almost instant exchange and discrimination of data, image and materials of all types. The fast developments in the field of technological advance particularly in the field of electronic and information technology have unshared in a new era in the field of human lives. But such technological advances are not only soon for human being, they have also brought some ill effects. Whereas the technological inventions such as telephone,automobile, computer, cell phones, etc have brought comforts and other facilities in the other hand it has created new opportunities for criminals and wrong doors. With the advent of technology, cyber crime and victimization of women are on the high and it poses as a major threat to the security of a person's as a whole. Even though India is the very few countries to enact IT Act 2000(as amended by information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 to combat cyber crimes, issues regarding women still remain touched in this Act. The said Act has termed certain offences as publishing of obscene materials on internet, sending offensive messages through communication service, intentionally or knowingly captures, publishes or transmits the image of a private area of any person without his or her consent as punishable offences. But the grave threat by victimization of women in general is not covered fully by this Act. The amendment of IT Act in 2008 has incorporated certain important changes but if we analyze the problem of victimization of women has not been dealt efficaciously, especially when we read and discuss the existing provisions with respect to cyber crimes they are not only general in nature but exhaustive. Therefore the author of paper has attempted to examine the threat to women folk through cyber space and in particular the present paper will highlight the extent of victimization of university female students of Kashmir region using internet vis-à-vis the protection guaranteed in the light of existing provisions of IT Act.