When it comes to women’s safety in India, the country has seen a number of heinous crimes in recent years. However, as the country moves toward digital transformation, the government of India intends to capitalise on this trend by utilising location technology to bring some relief.
Women all around India can now readily request assistance. The federal government has established a statewide emergency app to ensure women’s safety. The 112 Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) provides emergency assistance to women in crisis by dialling a single number (112).
Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, delivered this information in the Lok Sabha. The ERSS is accessible via the 112 India mobile app, which may be downloaded on any smartphone. A distress call can also be made by pushing the start button three times or dialling 999 or 555 from a mobile phone.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to create a dedicated phone number (112), similar to the 911 emergency service in the United States. An app called 112 India will also be released. Following the success of the UP 100 trials, 14 states and UTs are now launching pan-India operations.
About
The project, which is primarily intended for women’s safety and is part of the Nirbhaya campaign, is a collaboration between the Ministries of Women and Child Development and Home Affairs. Anyone can download this programme and trigger a call to the state emergency response by simply tapping a button or pressing the power button three times. The police will automatically contact the victim without making a phone call. It has a one-of-a-kind feature named ‘Shout.’ Because the police force is minimal and there is a large population to serve, any person can register as a volunteer with the system. These volunteers will be put into the system after a thorough review and verification.
For non-smartphones, pushing the power button three times will do the trick. In fact, the government of India is mandating that all mobile manufacturing companies include this feature, so that pressing the power button three times or long-pressing the numbers 5 and 9 will initiate a call, even a voice call to the state emergency response system, and the location of that mobile will be sent as an SMS. This has already been tested with UP 100, and more than 200 participants have participated in three rounds of trials. With an easily accessible app-based hotline, we may expect crime against women to decrease.
Google ELS
Google ELS has been incorporated into the service. “In the past, we relied on location-based services. Using the triangulation method, telecom service providers would supply us with the location of the person affected. More precision will be gained using this strategy. The precision will be 4 to 5 kilometres in rural areas and 500 metres in urban areas. With the use of Google ELS, latitude and longitude will be supplied to emergency services, with a position precision of 5 to 50 metres. That will undoubtedly shorten our response time,” Dwivedi observes.
