HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEPHONE HARASSMENT

Introduction

One of the most stressful and frightening invasions of privacy, a human face may be obscene or harassing phone calls. A small involvement relating to threatening calls, unwelcome phone calls can also be a major nuisance. Fortunately, to help bring an end to this unwelcome interference, there are actions you may take. Telephone harassment is a form of unsolicited telephone contact that may be intimidating, lewd or unwelcome. Annoying, harassing, intimidating or even causing harm would be the primary purpose of such calls. Telephone abuse can come in multiple forms. These forms are constantly ringing the phone, making repetitive phone calls, refusing to share identification, making obscene statements, demands or blackmailing. Such phone stalking is a criminal crime in both ways.

Almost 8 out of 10 women in India receive threats and unwanted sexual phone calls at least once a week, according to a study released by "True caller" in 2020. Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Pune are the cities which mostly face these problems. Indian women share their phone numbers very often by filling out the forms given to them in shopping malls, bars, markets, etc.  However, only 12 percent of women have reported it to the police when it comes to taking action against such calls, and the rest have only blocked the figure. Blank calls amount to harassment as well. These calls are often made secretly for the express purpose of intimidating an individual or bullying him.

Telephone harassment occurs when someone intends to annoy, harass, threaten, or even harm you by:

1. Making the telephone continually ring.

2. Making obscene comments, suggestions, or requests.

3. Refusing to identify oneself over the phone.

4. Making repeated telephone calls where the conversation consists only of harassment, especially after you have requested not to contact again.

5. Attempting to steal your financial or personal information over the phone.

6. Making a telephone call and using heavy breathing or silence with intent to intimidate.

Legal Provisions

Informing the police and registering a case in the general diary is the first measure that the victim must take against phone call abuse. The client should mention the gender of the caller, voice tone, the date and time of the phone call, the specifics of the contact and the approximate age of the caller as information to aid the authorities in locating the suspect. If the phone call abuse persists for a long time, the victim must file an FIR. Some of the remedies imbibed in the constitution are:

1. Section 354A of Indian Penal Code Any person demanding sexual favours or making sexually coloured statements shall be liable under this provision for the crime of sexual assault punishable by imprisonment for up to three years and/or fine.

2. Section 354D of Indian Penal Code According to this clause, if, despite her disinterest, a male repeatedly approaches a woman to facilitate personal intercourse, then he will be punished with three-year imprisonment and fine.

3.  Section 506 of Indian Penal Code According to this clause, any person who has committed a criminal intimidation crime is punishable by imprisonment of up to seven years and/or a fine.

4. Section 507 of Indian Penal Code If any male seeks to threaten or harass a woman by confidential messages, in addition to the sentence given under IPC Section 506, he will be punished with a two-year prison sentence.

5. Section 509 of Indian Penal Code According to this section, if a person insults your modesty over a phone call, then he will be liable to be punished with imprisonment up to one year and fine.

Conclusion

Although laws against threatening telephone calls exist, an individual can still solve these problems in other ways. It will help minimize abuse by not sharing personal numbers and additional contact information to strangers, random stores and social media. Hanging the message, blocking the number and branding it as spam is another route most Indian women and girls resort to. Though, both such strategies are only reversible and would not deter the harasser from repeating the crime on anyone else. In India, there are legal ways to resolve the severe issue of threat calls, but there are also several tactics that can be followed on a personal basis, such as blocking the number. But, these strategies would not deter anyone else from being abused by a harasser. There will not always be intimidating calls from people who have a reason to harass you or the usual suspects. Often, in India, intimidating calls are made to coerce people to use products and services due to the convenient connectivity available to commercial service providers. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has provided that customers who are disrupted or harassed by a commercial service provider may permanently or temporarily ban such numbers by simply sending an SMS 'START 0' to 1909 or dialing 1909, in order to protect individuals. It is also strongly recommended that such harassers should be identified as early as possible and that stringent disciplinary action be taken against them to avoid such abuse in the future.