Governance · Sub-pillar 3.7

Digital rights and safety

Privacy of personal data, open access to the internet, protection from online fraud and scams, accountable use of AI, and safe digital lives for children and the elderly.

What is digital rights and safety?

Digital rights and safety is sub-pillar 3.7 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the last of seven sub-pillars under the Governance pillar. It asks whether personal data stays private, whether the internet stays open, whether people are protected from online fraud and scams, whether AI is used accountably, and whether children and the elderly are safe online.

Why it matters for 2047

More than a hundred crore Indians are now online, and for most of them the phone is the bank, the market, the classroom and the town square. Rights that were once exercised in streets and offices are now exercised through screens, and so are the harms: theft, fraud, surveillance and abuse.

The second edition of the framework added this sub-pillar because the old categories no longer fit. A scam call that empties a pensioner's account is a crime, a consumer harm and a failure of digital design at once. A child's safety online is a family question and a regulatory one. Personal data is now an asset the state, companies and criminals all want.

47 BH asks whether India can keep the openness that made its digital rise possible while protecting the people who use it, and whether the systems that now decide loans, benefits and content, increasingly with AI, can be questioned and corrected.

Where India stands

  • 1,01,928

    cyber crime cases were registered by the police in 2024, up 17% from 86,420 in 2023 and 65,893 in 2022, a rate of 7.3 per lakh people.[1][2]

  • Rs 11,158 cr

    had been saved for fraud victims by freezing stolen money through the 1930 helpline and the national cybercrime portal by 30 June 2026, out of more than Rs 55,050 crore reported lost between 2021 and 2025.[2]

  • 65

    internet shutdowns were imposed in India in 2025, out of at least 313 recorded worldwide, according to the Access Now #KeepItOn coalition, which has ranked India among the countries with the most shutdowns for several years.[3]

  • 13 Nov 2025

    was the date India notified the rules under its Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, with an eighteen-month phased rollout and a Data Protection Board to hear complaints; India had 109.27 crore internet subscribers in March 2026.[4]

India now has a data protection law with rules in force and a long transition, which gives citizens, for the first time, a statutory right over how their personal data is used and a body to complain to. [4] Whether the Board is independent and whether the exemptions for the state are narrow in practice will decide how much the law is worth; 47 BH will track it as it takes effect.

Fraud is the harm most Indians actually meet. Victims reported more than Rs 55,000 crore lost in five years, and about a fifth of it has been frozen or recovered, which means four-fifths was not. [2] Registered cyber crime has risen by more than half in two years, and that is only the share of complaints that becomes a police case. [1][2]

On openness, India shut down the internet 65 times in 2025, more than any other democracy in that count, usually locally and during unrest or examinations. [3] A note on the numbers: cyber crime figures count police cases and the fraud figures count complaints, so both understate the harm; the shutdown count is compiled by a non-governmental coalition from public orders and reports, and government and civil-society counts differ.

On the 47 BH report card

Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:

  • Cyber crime complaints and money lost to online fraud per year, and the share recovered (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre; NCRB).
  • Days or instances of internet shutdown per year (Access Now #KeepItOn; SFLC.in tracker).
  • Operation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act: Board constituted, complaints decided, breaches reported (Data Protection Board; CERT-In).

Two lenses on digital rights and safety

City and village

47 BH asks whether a first-time smartphone user in a village is as protected from a fraudulent link as an engineer in a city, and whether a region under an internet shutdown loses its livelihoods along with its connectivity. The newest users, in villages and among the elderly, are the most exposed; the costs of shutdowns fall on the places where they are imposed.

Learn, avoid, protect

Learn
What can India learn from countries that cut payment fraud through bank liability rules and real-time blocking, that protect children online with age-appropriate design, and that require independent audit of AI used in public decisions?
Avoid
Which mistakes should it avoid, such as treating shutdowns as a routine tool of order, letting the data protection authority depend on those it regulates, or chasing fraudsters only after the money has gone?
Protect
What of its own should it protect, such as the open, interoperable design of UPI and Aadhaar-based services, the low cost of data that brought a billion people online, and the right to privacy the Supreme Court recognised in 2017?

What this sub-pillar does not cover

Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:

Questions about digital rights and safety

How much cyber crime is there in India?

The police registered 1,01,928 cyber crime cases in 2024, up 17% from 86,420 in 2023, a rate of 7.3 per lakh people, according to NCRB's Crime in India 2024. Complaints to the national cybercrime portal are far more numerous: over 65.89 lakh financial fraud complaints between 2021 and 2025. [1][2]

How much money do Indians lose to online fraud?

More than Rs 55,050 crore was reported lost between 2021 and 2025, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs. By 30 June 2026 more than Rs 11,158 crore had been saved by freezing funds through the 1930 helpline and the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System. [2]

How often is the internet shut down in India?

65 times in 2025, according to the Access Now #KeepItOn coalition's annual report, which recorded at least 313 shutdowns in 52 countries worldwide that year. [3]

Does India have a data protection law?

Yes. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 received assent in August 2023, and its rules were notified on 13 November 2025 with an eighteen-month phased implementation, including the setting up of a Data Protection Board. [4]

Why is this a Governance sub-pillar and not an Enterprise one?

Because privacy, an open internet and protection from fraud are rights the state has to guarantee and enforce, whoever the service provider is. The business side, fair dealing and redress for consumers, lives under Enterprise.

Sources

  1. National Crime Records Bureau, "Crime in India 2024", 2026; cyber crime figures as summarised by Drishti IAS, 9 May 2026. Report volumes: ncrb.gov.in/crime-in-india.html. https://www.ncrb.gov.in/crime-in-india.html
  2. Ministry of Home Affairs, "National Cyber Crime Data", Rajya Sabha written reply, Press Information Bureau, 21 July 2026 (includes NCRB year-wise cyber crime cases 2022-2024). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2287039&reg=48&lang=2
  3. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, "Internet shutdowns in 2025", annual report, March 2026; India's count as reported by Business Standard, 31 March 2026. https://www.accessnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/KeepItOn-Internet-Shutdowns-2025-Annual-Report.pdf
  4. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, "Government Highlights Digital India Initiatives for Strengthening Digital Infrastructure, Cyber Security and Data Protection", Lok Sabha written reply, Press Information Bureau, 5 August 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2294910&reg=48&lang=2

47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.

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