Legally Yours: A Practical Guide To Indian Laws Every Woman Should Know

What would you do if someone threatened to leak your private photos? Or harassed you at work? Is your live-in relationship legally valid? What are your inheritance rights as a woman? Should you sign a prenuptial agreement? Do you know how to protect yourself when your rights are violated? Indian laws can seem confusing and intimidating. Legally Yours makes them simple and accessible.

Written by Manasi Chaudhari, an award-winning lawyer and the founder of Pink Legal, a UN Women-recognized platform for women's rights, this book is the ultimate guide for women of any age to understand, own and assert their rights. 

Here's an excerpt from Manasi Chaudhari's Legally Yours

How many times do you unlock your phone in a day? My score is roughly forty times. Our phones have almost become a part of our bodies, and social media is an extension of our minds and hearts. While we all enjoy watching funny videos, sharing information and catching up with friends virtually, our increased online activity has made us susceptible to the dark side of the internet—cyberbullying. 

According to the 2020–21 annual report of the National Commission for Women (NCW), cases of online harassment against women have increased by five times since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. These figures are scary. Does that mean we should stop using the internet and social media all together to protect ourselves? That would be like saying we should stop walking on the road for fear of getting into an accident. 

The internet is here to stay, grow and become an even more integral part of our lives. Therefore, it is important for us to understand how to protect ourselves. This chapter will explain the laws that protect you and suggest a course of action against each form of cyberbullying. 

A few basics to know: 

1. We have only one law for everything related to the internet, called the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. This law is more than two decades old and has not caught up with developments in technology. 

2. You can file a complaint against cyberbullying with the cyber crime cell of your city. Most metro cities have one. The process is similar to filing a regular police complaint. If your city does not have one, file a complaint at a regular police station. 

Who Are Trolls? How Do I Deal with Them? 

If you are familiar with the digital world, then you have definitely heard of trolling. Trolling is a form of cyberbullying where trolls deliberately say nasty and hurtful things about someone online. Trolls can either be real people hiding behind the anonymity of a keyboard, or they can be cyberbots (a robot that acts like a human). 

While trolling affects everyone, irrespective of gender, age or profession, it makes women particularly vulnerable online. For example, journalist Rana Ayyub has been the target of brutal trolling for her tweets. Apart from receiving death threats, her personal information was leaked all over the internet, and she has been called all sorts of distasteful names like ‘Islamist’, ‘Jehadi Jane’, ‘didi’ and what not.

What Should You Do if You Are Trolled? 

1. Block and ignore: Most trolls are faceless, useless keyboard warriors frustrated with their own lives. Sometimes the best solution is to ignore and block them. A troll’s only objective is to trouble you, but if they realize that you simply don’t care, it is no longer fun for them. 

2. Change your settings: Some platforms, like Instagram, allow you to change your settings so that only your friends or people who you follow back can comment on your photos. If that is not possible for you, set up a filter that will ‘restrict’ or automatically block certain types of comments.

3. Call out and shame: Sometimes naming and shaming the troll can also help. If the troll is a real person, they are sure to feel embarrassed for being called out as a bully (do remember to attach screenshots as proof). 

4. Should you complain? Filing a police complaint may not be the most effective solution for trolling, simply because the police do not have the resources to deal with the large number of trolling cases. They may not take your complaint seriously unless you are an influential person. 

5. Defamation suit: If you know who the troll is or if it is a specific person, then you can file a defamation suit against them. A defamation suit is filed when someone ‘defames’ another person, i.e., says things that can tarnish a person’s name and reputation. Trolling is included in this category. While most defamation suits don’t really result in conclusive judgments, filing a suit itself can serve as a strong warning and deterrent. You should take a lawyer’s help for this. 

Extracted with permission from Manasi Chaudhari's Legally Yours; published by HarperCollins India.