NEW DELHI: Actuated by the need to provide immediate rescue to women in distress, the Narendra Modi government wants an " alert app"
in existing mobile handsets which when pressed would trigger an alert
to the police.
The alert—a voice call or an SMS—will also be beamed to family members and friends.
The alert—a voice call or an SMS—will also be beamed to family members and friends.
When pressed, the App
will dial an emergency number and an SMS/data would be sent to Police
Control Room in a predefined format.
Ministry of Home Affairs has
been tasked with "up-gradation" of the existing smartphones and
outlining the "format" of the SMS. The SMS would contain the calling
mobile number location details (through GPS).
These
(calls) will be "allotted priority" even when there is congestion in the
network. Plus, any distress call will be serviced by available telecom
service providers even if the caller is not its customer.
For the
feature phones, long-pressing a key, for three to five seconds, would
establish a voice call to the emergency number and send a distress SMS.
The Police will then fetch the location from the telecom service
provider.
Also, the government has decided to install
"alert button" in public transport vehicles which will immediately send
details of the vehicle, its registration number, details of the driver
to the Police Control Room assisting in prompt rescue. The initiative to
have "panic buttons" in mobile handsets was initiated by Maneka Gandhi.
ET View
As Good As Last-Mile Connectivity
Having
a single-touch emergency system is a much-needed, great idea. But as
with every great public utility system, a 'panic button' is as good as
its last-mile connectivity. What will make this more than a '100' number
is not just its single-step procedure but also the GPS-enabled system
bringing the nearest law-enforcers to the location without the usual
layers of human participation. Which means the right people will have to
respond swiftly and correctly to the panic beacon. Which, in turn,
means training personnel to respond to the system accordingly.
