Safeguarding Women And Children Online, The Cyber Crime Prevention Scheme (CCPWC) Scheme, 2018.

Policy Update
Kaustav Majumdar

Background

India’s digital expansion has brought a darker companion: stalking, sextortion, morphed images, fake profiles and child sexual abuse material. By 2018 it was clear that police stations, forensic facilities and courts had not kept pace. Policing is a State subject, and most State forces lacked both trained personnel and the tools to handle digital evidence.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) responded with the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) Scheme. Its main objective is an effective mechanism to handle cybercrimes against women and children, with an estimated outlay of Rs 223.198 crore. The scheme is financed through the Nirbhaya Fund.

It is an enabling framework rather than a law. It creates no new offences, which sit in the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the POCSO Act. Instead, it builds the machinery through which those laws can work.

Functioning

The scheme rests on five pillars: an online reporting platform, a national-level cyber forensic laboratory, training of police officers, judges and prosecutors, awareness activities, and research and development. (See Figure 1)

Reporting: The central cybercrime reporting portal was launched on 20 September 2018, initially for complaints on child sexual abuse material and sexually explicit content. It has since become the single window for all cyber crime, with a special focus on women and children, and a toll-free helpline, 1930, supports complainants. Under the women- and child-related module, complainants can choose to report anonymously, which matters where stigma silences victims.

Forensics: A national investigation-support laboratory sits within the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New Delhi, offering early-stage forensic help to State police. It has since been renamed the National-Digital Investigation Support Centre, and a second centre began operating in Assam in August 2025. A separate National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Evidence) was inaugurated in Hyderabad on 14 May 2022.

State capacity: The Centre gives grants to States and Union Territories to set up cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hire junior cyber consultants, and train police personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers.

Awareness and research: These are the softer components: public campaigns and studies meant to guide future policy.

Structure of the CCPWC Scheme. Source: Author’s representation based on Ministry of Home Affairs and PIB descriptions of the scheme.

Performance

The scheme’s record is strongest on infrastructure and training, and thinner on outcomes.

Funds: In a July 2026 reply to Parliament, the Ministry stated that Rs 132.93 crore has been released to States and UTs. That is about 60 per cent of the total outlay, though the comparison is not exact because the outlay also covers central components such as the portal and national laboratories. The figure has barely moved since late 2024, when it stood at Rs 131.60 crore.
Laboratories: Cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 33 States/UTs. A March 2025 reply noted that none had been established in Tamil Nadu under this scheme, a notable gap for a large and digitally active State.
Training: More than 24,600 police personnel, prosecutors and judicial officers have been trained. The same figure has appeared in several replies over time, so it should be read as “at least”, not as a live count.
Central forensic support: By June 2026 the national investigation-support centre in Delhi had assisted State and UT agencies in more than 14,000 cyber crime cases.
Reporting volume: Incidents registered on the national portal rose from about 15.96 lakh in 2023 to about 22.68 lakh in 2024.

These figures show that the machinery exists and is being used. They do not show how many complaints become FIRs, chargesheets and convictions, because the public data on utilisation and conversion is limited.

Impact

The wider picture explains why the scheme matters. NCRB recorded 1,01,928 cyber crime cases in 2024, up from 86,420 in 2023, a rise of about 18 per cent and the first time cases crossed one lakh. Earlier years show a steady climb: 44,735 in 2019 and 65,893 in 2022. (See Figure 2.)

Cyber crime cases registered in India, 2019-2024

Cases specific to women and children are harder to isolate, because NCRB publishes no single victim-based total. Some relevant heads in the 2024 tables:

Cyber stalking and bullying of women and children: 1,240 cases, slightly below 1,305 in 2023.
Publication or transmission of obscene material: 6,990 cases, down from 7,893.
Fake profiles: 266 cases, up from 225.

A dip in these categories should not be read as falling harm. It may reflect reporting patterns, changes in how offences are classified, or the way complaints are converted into FIRs. A parliamentary committee has noted a 239 per cent increase in cyber crimes against women between 2017 and 2022.

Two further cautions apply. First, a rise in recorded cases is partly a rise in reporting. As IMPRI’s earlier analysis observed, the national portal and the 1930 helpline lowered the barriers to lodging complaints. Second, the scheme’s contribution cannot be cleanly separated from other measures. The I4C’s financial-fraud system, for instance, reports more than Rs 11,158 crore saved across 32.8 lakh complaints, but that success sits mostly outside the scheme’s focus on women and children.

The clearest impact is institutional. Investigators in many States have a laboratory to turn to, prosecutors have a curriculum, and victims have an anonymous route to report.

Emerging Issues

Uneven State capacity: Grants create laboratories, but not necessarily working ones. Staffing, equipment upgrades, software licences and case backlogs decide whether a lab helps or merely exists. The Tamil Nadu gap suggests that implementation depends heavily on State-level initiative.

Synthetic media and deepfakes. The government amended the IT Rules on 10 February 2026 to address synthetically generated information, including deepfakes. The scheme, designed in 2018, was not built for AI-generated intimate imagery, and forensic labs will need tools to authenticate and trace synthetic content.

Weak last-mile access: The Committee on the Empowerment of Women, in its March 2026 report, found awareness among women and children inadequate, especially in rural and low digital-literacy areas, and noted that stigma and ignorance of the helpline discourage reporting. It recommended a simplified, victim-centred procedure, and suggested that Anganwadi centres, women’s helplines and Panchayat digital kiosks be equipped to file complaints on a victim’s behalf, with confidentiality.

Attention drifting to financial fraud: Fraud dominates the record: by secondary reports of the NCRB volume, fraud-related cases numbered 73,987 in 2024, about 72.6 per cent of the total. Institutional energy and public messaging increasingly go to fraud, and gender-specific harms risk getting less attention.

Data and accountability: Utilisation certificates, FIR-conversion rates and conviction data specific to the scheme are not readily available in public documents, which makes independent evaluation difficult.

Way Forward

Publish outcome data: Annual, State-wise reporting on funds utilised, FIR conversion, chargesheets and case disposal for women- and child-related cyber crime would turn a capacity scheme into an accountable one.
Sustain labs, not just set them up: A recurring maintenance, staffing and technology-upgrade component is needed, with deepfake detection and mobile forensics as priorities.
Close geographic gaps: States without a scheme-supported lab, such as Tamil Nadu, need central assistance or a documented alternative arrangement.
Take reporting to the village: Adopt assisted filing through Anganwadis, Panchayat kiosks and women’s helplines, with strict confidentiality.
Support victims, not just investigations: Link portal complaints to counselling, rapid content takedown and legal aid, so that reporting leads to relief and not only to a case file.
Keep training current: Judges and prosecutors need refreshers as offences and evidence types change. Measured improvement in case quality is more informative than training headcounts.

References

Committee on the Empowerment of Women. (2026, March 23). Cyber crimes and cyber safety of women (Fourth Report) [Summary]. Parliament of India. PRS Legislative Research. https://prsindia.org/policy/monthly-policy-review/march-2026
India. Parliament. House of the People. (2025, March 11). National cyber crime data, laboratories, and training (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1994). Ministry of Home Affairs. https://www.mha.gov.in
India. Parliament. House of the People. (2026, July 21). NCRB cyber crime data 2020–2024, CCPWC funds, and forensic centres (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 251). Ministry of Home Affairs. https://www.mha.gov.in
India. Parliament. Council of States. (2026, February 11). CCPWC funds and implementation details (Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1346). Ministry of Home Affairs. https://www.mha.gov.in
Ministry of Home Affairs. (n.d.). National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (Helpline No. 1930). Government of India. Retrieved October 9, 2026, from https://cybercrime.gov.in
National Crime Records Bureau. (2025). Crime in India 2024. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. https://ncrb.gov.in
Press Information Bureau. (n.d.). Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme features and outlay. Government of India. Retrieved October 9, 2026, from https://pib.gov.in

About the Contributor

Kaustav Majumdar is a recent graduate of BA in Political Science from Ramthakur College, affiliated under Tripura University University in Tripura, and currently works as a Research & Editorial Intern at IMPRI. His interests include public policy, women safety, social welfare, public administration, and evidence-based policymaking, with a particular focus on research and data-driven analysis as well as a Writer in making.

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the entire team at the IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute for providing me with this platform to share policy insights on such a critical contemporary issue. I am deeply thankful to the editors and reviewers who took the time to read through earlier drafts, offering sharp constructive feedback and valuable suggestions that significantly elevated the quality and depth of this article.

Reviewers

The author sincerely acknowledges the guidance and constructive feedback provided by Khushi throughout the preparation of this article. Their valuable suggestions and thoughtful observations contributed to strengthening the analysis, improving the organisation of ideas, and enhancing the overall quality of the manuscript.

Disclaimer

The views and interpretations expressed in this article are those of the author. Any remaining errors or omissions are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the reviewers or IMPRI.

Suggested keywords and tags:

CCPWC Scheme, Cyber Crime against Women, Child Safety Online, Ministry of Home Affairs, Nirbhaya Fund, I4C, National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, Cyber Forensics, Helpline 1930, NCRB Crime in India 2024, Deepfakes, Sextortion, Online Harassment, Capacity Building, Gender and Technology, Digital Safety Policy