CJI Gavai Flags Digital Risks To Girls, Calls For Specialised Laws On Deepfakes And Cyber Harassment
Chief Justice of India BR Gavai has issued a stark warning about the increased vulnerability of girls in the digital age, demanding urgent legal reforms and specialized training for officials to combat growing online threats.
Key Threats Identified
Speaking at the National Annual Stakeholders Consultation on “Safeguarding the Girl Child,” organized by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee with UNICEF India, Justice Gavai emphasized that dangers have expanded beyond physical spaces into the “vast and often unregulated digital world.”
He highlighted several evolving digital threats that have grown in both scale and sophistication:
- Online harassment and cyberbullying
- Digital stalking and misuse of personal data
- Proliferation of deepfake imagery
The CJI noted that while technology empowers, it has become a double-edged sword creating new risks for the most vulnerable.
Call for Legal and Institutional Reforms
Justice Gavai called for immediate action through:
- Enactment of specialized statutes addressing online sexual exploitation, digital trafficking, and cyber harassment
- Specialized training and sensitization of law enforcement, educators, health professionals, and local administrators
- Equipping officials to respond with empathy and contextual understanding to new-age challenges
Digital Governance Priority
He asserted that “Protecting the girl child must become a core priority of digital governance,” ensuring technological progress comes with ethical safeguards. Framing the issue as fundamental to securing dignity and spirit, he quoted Rabindranath Tagore’s “Where the Mind is Without Fear” to emphasize that the nation’s vision remains incomplete while any girl lives in fear.
The ultimate goal, he stated, is ensuring technology serves as a “tool for liberation rather than exploitation.”
