Women's safety device set to hit market

Adding teeth

The much-hyped women’s safety device is likely to be available in the market by the end of this year; the Ministry of Communications and IT is ready with the prototype of the gadget.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), a premier research and development centre of the ministry, has developed a prototype device. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal inspected the system a couple of days ago.

The device will be fitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS). If a woman wearing the watch sends a distress signal via the push-button or a voice command, initially a text message will be sent to the SMS control room, from where two more text messages will be generated—one for an acquaintance of the woman in distress, and another for the police control room.

As the watch will contain a GPS-enabled system, the police control room will be able to pinpoint the location of the woman and alert the nearest police patrol van.

The device will come in two different forms: As a wrist watch or a small device or a software which can be installed on mobile phones. Those who don’t wear wrist watches can install it in their mobiles, a senior ministry official told Deccan Herald. After successful tests and trial runs, the device will be sent for commercial production.

Sources in the Ministry of Communications and IT told Deccan Herald that though the government would allow both public and private-sector companies to manufacture the product, the government would fix its price.

Sibal had announced plans to develop a women’s safety device after the incident in Delhi, where a 23-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by six men in a moving bus on
December 16, 2012.