The dramatic rise in rape cases in India has put the nation's government on edge. As a result, all mobiles in India will be required to have a panic button by 2017 to provide help for women in a distress situation.
The new rule will go into effect in January 2017. It has been learned that pressing the panic button will immediately send out a distress signal to designated friend, family member or to the police authorities.
India's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said that the panic button will activate on low-tech feature phones by pressing the "5" or "9" key and on smartphones, it will activate once the power button is pressed three times. To further enhance the security, all mobile phones are also required to have the facility of identifying the location trough satellite-based GPS starting 2018.
The move comes after reports' showing the increasing statistics of rape cases in India, including the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus. According to India's National Crime Records Bureau, as cited by Newsweek, the nation has more than 36,000 reported rape cases in 2014, among a total of 337,922 violations against women.
The Indian government has already embraced distinctive technological measures to address the issue such as Safetipin, VithU, and One Touch Response. However, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, insisted that a physical panic button is much more prevalent than using the mobile application.
"It was argued that women in distress do not have more than a second or two to send out a distress message as a perpetrator will often reach out to her mobile phone in the event of a physical/sexual assault," the press release reads.
On April 26, Tuesday, Minister Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament, that the inbuilt system of a panic button on mobiles for women's safety is a "game changer" and stressed that his new button will make women feel safe, as it serve as an impediment to the culprits.
Further, the authorities are now planning to introduce a centralized emergency call system for the entire country that will cater to various types of emergencies. The new national emergency number, 112, will roll out in the coming months.
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