One in every three – or 36 per cent – women in India receive sexual and inappropriate calls or SMSes at least once a week, a survey has found.
Conducted by communication app Truecaller, the survey titled ‘Understanding the Impact of Harassment and Spam Calls on Women,’ showed that 78 percent of women receive harassment calls with inappropriate and sexual content, while 82 percent receive unsolicited videos and pictures with inappropriate and sexual content at least once a week.
On average, 50 percent of these calls and texts were anonymous, 11 percent were made by stalkers, and 3 percent were from a person known to them.
Overall, women in India report 18 percent more unwanted calls than men, an increase of 5 percent from 13 percent last year, Truecaller said in a statement.
The survey looks into the state of harassment calls made to women, what steps they can take to prevent them, and how big a problem it is, encouraging women facing harassment and spam to 'call it out,’ the company added.
Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of women were found to have taken measures against these calls, while 65 percent blocked the harasser's number, and another 48 percent installed a call blocking app.
But, only 10 percent of women filed a complaint to the police, while 7 per cent named and shamed the spammer on social media.
According to the Truecaller’s Insights 2017 report, India is plagued by the highest number of spam calls in the world, with the average Truecaller user receiving 22.6 spam calls per month.
At least once a week, 72 percent of the women surveyed received calls from fraudsters seeking to collect payments or sensitive personal data, with 4 percent receiving counterfeit calls almost daily.
The survey was conducted from 20 January to 22 February among 2,004 women aged 15-35 across 15 cities in India.
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