1 in 3 Indian women receive offensive calls, SMSs: Survey

New Delhi: One in every three or 36 percent of women in India receive sexual and inappropriate calls or SMSs 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 do, an increase of 5 percent from 13 percent last year, Truecaller said in a statement on Wednesday.

The survey looks into the state of harassment calls made to women, what steps they can take to prevent them, and how big of problem they are, encouraging women facing harassment and spam to 'Call It Out', it added.

Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of the 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 the app.

But, only 10 per cent 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 January 20 - February 22, 2018, among 2,004 women aged 15-35 across 15 cities in India.