Police launch mobile app for women's safety in Rajasthan

The police can now zero in on the location of a cell phone user, thanks to a first-of-its-kind Android-based application, launched in Alwar district of Rajasthan recently.

The app has helped them check the rise in incidents of rape and other atrocities on women.

Mobile app “Pukar” has been indigenously developed by the IIT students for the police, specially at a time when the Union government is yet to introduce electronic personal safety device (ePSD) which was announced with great fanfare after the Nirbhaya incident in New Delhi.

“We have introduced a new mobile application Pukar in Alwar district and results have been tremendous. The app has been developed by IIT students. After testing it for two months the app has been introduced officially,” said a senior official of Alwar Police.

Once the app is downloaded the user can store five contacts of her choice. If a woman is being threatened or being subjected to any untoward incident, she will have to swipe or press the SOS button, visible in red on the app’s screen.

The application will send instant message to five contacts, who can inform the police or control room. Interestingly, the application also identifies the mobile location of the user.

“The best part is that the app also provides the location of the cell phone and once the application is used it puts the phone on “sleep mode” so that the criminal may think that the cell is switched off,” said a senior police official.

Officials informed that the number of prank calls automatically gets eliminated and the contacts who inform the police are generally genuine.

They also said that earlier police had to rely on mobile phone companies but after developing this app, the location of mobile can traced instantly. It also has the ability to confuse the criminals, who generally tend to switch off the mobile after conducting the crime, the officials said.