78 Per Cent Indian Women Receive Sexually Explicit Calls & Vulgar Messages Every Week

India is ranked at number 50 in ¡®Best Countries For Women¡¯, according to Best Countries report by US News and Wharton University. Certainly, that¡¯s not a number to be proud of. Given the history of how women have been sidelined in the country and not given access to major human rights, there is no uncertainty about the status of women in India.

Among other major things, using mobile phones is increasingly getting traumatic for women in the country.

Lewd messages, sexually explicit texts messages, blank calls from strangers and stalkers are affecting thousands of women across India, according to data collected by Stockholm-based phone number identification app, Truecaller.

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Truecaller surveyed over 2,000 women aged between 15 to 35 across 15 Indian cities from January 20 to February 22.

India is a first country where Truecaller has conducted such a survey. The company has studied how such calls and messages impact women. India is Truecaller¡¯s largest market with an estimated 150 million users.

Explicit messages, lewd calls & spams

As if eve-teasing and passing lascivious comments in public spaces is not enough, stalkers find it hard to let women stay peacefully even inside the boundaries of their homes.

One out of three women surveyed reported receiving sexual and inappropriate calls or text messages.

And the frequency of such calls is alarmingly high: Around 78 per cent women received calls with sexual and inappropriate content, while 82 per cent reported receiving inappropriate videos and pictures every week.

These calls are mostly made by strangers who somehow obtain phone numbers and harass women. The report says Rajasthan¡¯s capital Jaipur has the highest instances of such harassing calls on a weekly basis.

In Uttar Pradesh, mobile phone numbers of girls are sold for pittance to men who sexually harass them over calls.

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It is not just sexually explicit calls and messages that bother women. Spam calls have a fair share of their role too.

Incidentally, Indians receive the most number of spam calls on average every month. Respondents said that they receive a high number of unwanted spam or marketing calls.

Blank calls, with no relation to marketing, banks, loans, etc, continue to cause inconvenience to women. Most women, in a typical fashion, get rid of such nuisance by blocking numbers or installing call-blocking apps. Only 10% approach the police, the survey revealed.

The reluctance to approach the police and the foot-dragging on part of police to help women in distress has led to a significant rise in instances of spam calls, blackmailing and stalking.

As good as it may turn out to be, smartphone boom is no less than a bane for Indian women.