Move aimed at helping women in distress: Govt
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 17
Blueprint finalised
- The govt has finalised a blueprint with mobile phone providers who have agreed to provide in-built panic button in gadgets
- In case of old cell phones one can visit the dealer, who will adjust it for the person concerned
- The panic button will send an SMS to the pre-listed three most trusted contacts of the victim
Special police volunteers from next month
- Under the scheme, a girl over the age of 21 and having cleared class XII will be appointed in every village. Her job will be to keep an eye on any crime, potential crime against women, from wife beating to eve-teasing to molestation
Women will soon be able to find
quick redress when caught in distressing situations. The government has
finalised a blueprint with mobile phone providers who have agreed to provide
in-built mechanism to have a panic button on the gadgets to help women seek
help when needed.
Women and Child Development Minister
Maneka Gandhi gave this information to the Lok Sabha today while answering
questions on gender disparity in the country.
Acknowledging that India ranked
poorly than even some South Asian countries on the UN’s Gender Parity Index,
Maneka today said, “From now on every mobile phone will have an in-built panic
button. But in case of all old cell phones you can go to the person who owns
the company or the dealer and they will adjust it for you. If a woman is in
trouble, she can just press the button on the phone itself and she will get
immediate help.”
The Women Ministry worked out on the
panic button plan with the Ministry of Information Technology last week and is
now in the advanced stages of finalising it. Maneka has held meetings with
stakeholders in this connection.
The move envisages a situation where
a woman, faced with a crime, can immediately seek help by pressing a panic
button which will send an SMS to the pre-listed three most trusted contacts of
the victim in question. The button will also send to these contacts the
location of the woman in distress and will be placed on the cell phone in a way
that it remains data protected.
The ministry is also in the process
of launching a new scheme called “Special Police Volunteers” which will roll
from the next month.
“Under the
scheme, one girl, over the age of 21 and having finished her Class XII, will be
appointed in every village. Her job will be to keep an eye on any crime,
potential crime against women, from wife beating to eve-teasing to molestation.
In fact, it also means keeping an eye on parents who are preventing the girl
children from going to school, on malnutrition being deliberately created by
giving women and girls less food. So, special police volunteers will go a long
way,” Maneka said.
