Photo Courtesy: nenow
Kohima: Nagaland’s top human rights officials are pushing for a legal overhaul to combat stalking and digital harassment. Justice Lanusungkum Jamir, chairman of the Nagaland State Human Rights Commission, warned that current laws are insufficient to address the growing risks of the digital age. He pointed to Section 78 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which covers physical and cyber stalking, but argued that the code remains outdated.
The law currently lists the offender as a man and treats first-time stalking as a bailable offense. These gaps allow abusers to return to society and continue their patterns of harassment. Justice Jamir called for the law to become gender-neutral, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift toward online surveillance, identity theft, and the use of spyware. "Individuals must be educated on how to document and report repeated unwanted intrusions before they escalate into violence," Jamir stated during a state-level awareness event in Kohima.
Organized by the National Commission for Women and the Nagaland State Commission for Women, the event highlighted the psychological toll of such abuse. NSCW Chairperson W. Nginyeih Konyak labeled these acts modern plagues. While Nagaland reported 56 crimes against women in the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, the lowest in India, officials fear these figures mask an uptick in hidden digital offenses.
Konyak cited a grim case of a Kohima college student forced to quit her studies after an anonymous stalker used artificial intelligence to create morphed images and extort her. She urged educational institutions to establish confidential reporting mechanisms and adopt the Centre’s Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children scheme. Both leaders advised victims to block offenders, preserve digital evidence, and refuse to tolerate harassment, regardless of cultural pressures.
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