Cyberstalking in India: challenges on the social side and the underlying contradictions

The ordeal of woman victims in India has rightly been given the term - secondary victimization and its outcome in the form of deindividuation. Arguably, the positioning of a cyberstalking victim in the Indian patriarchal society only belittles her existence and leads to deindividuation. The fear of loss of reputation, poor social perception and fragility of her womanhood make her a sitting duck for any cyber stalker; and the case is the same for even a male victim. In view of the contextual realities, the present research sets itself to argue the fact that, 'conservative beliefs, lack of awareness and the patriarchal outlook seem to curtail women's sovereignty and choices; this seemingly engenders a secondary form of social punishment victims endure'. It goes on to argue why the guilt and the blameworthiness are for only the victim to endure and why the victim has to keep quiet and fall prey to negative stereotypes of the society. Most importantly, the research tries to fill the gap on existing work by finding an answer to - what can possibly prevent deindividuation and secondary victimization of Indian women based on regulation, mechanism and enforcements on the social side? The assessment would be based on an integrative contextual analysis of the contemporary realities of cyberstalking in India. A solution is sought with in the domain of behavioral studies based on - neutralization theory, sexual solicitation of the society methods of monitoring and Zero FIR for influencing the motivators of the cyber-stalkers.