Centre announces second project under Nirbhaya fund

The Centre on Wednesday cleared the second project under the Rs 1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund for establishing an integrated computer platform to respond to calls from women in distress.

Women can seek help of police using a “panic” button or an application on their mobile phones, following which Emergency Response (ER) units will be dispatched. 

The ambitious scheme will establish an Integrated Computer Aided Dispatch platform. It will be completed in the next nine months in 114 cities at a cost of Rs 321.69 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal of th]e Home Ministry, an official statement said.

The first scheme to be cleared under the Nirbhaya Fund, which involved mapping routes of public vehicles, tracking vehicles on the road and highlighting violations through visual and text signals among others. Under the second scheme, a 24x7 Emergency Response unit will be able to track the people in distress using a Geographical Positioning System or Geographical Information System. 

“Distress or emergency alarms generated by panic buttons, landlines or mobiles through individual devices pioneered by the Department of Information Technology or mobile phone applications would be tracked and ER units will be dispatched to attend the call,” the statement said.

The key objectives of the scheme include providing a 24X7 helpline service to women in distress and an efficient and effective response system to attend their calls, besides alarms for medical and disaster services by other responders in an integrated manner.

  Handling of emergencies of children and other vulnerable sections of the society and speedy assistance to helpless women and children, who face violence like eve teasing, dowry demands, sexual assault, molestation or any other abuse either in public or at home also form a part of the scheme.  The project involves setting up of city-wise hi-tech control rooms to cover 114 cities and districts in different states and Union Territories, including 71 cities having a population of more than a million or which are headquarters of states as well as headquarters of 41 highly crime-prone districts.

“The 71 cities would cover a population of over 231.23 million and the 43 districts would cover a population of 160.27 million, that is a total coverage of 32.6 percent of the country,” it said.