The key to women safety in India
Panic key a must for all mobiles from next year
new delhi — All mobile phones sold in India will have to have a panic button from the start of next year, an official said on Tuesday, as the country grapples with large numbers of sex crimes against women.
The emergency feature would be activated by pressing a designated key on a smartphone or holding down the numbers ‘5’ or ‘9’ on a basic device, according to a statement from the telecommunications ministry. All manufacturers, including companies such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co, would need to comply.
“No cell phones can be sold without the provision for panic button from January 1, 2017,” a telecommunications ministry official said.
The ministry said it was also making inbuilt GPS compulsory from January 1, 2018.
“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said late on Monday.
India is the world’s secondlargest mobile market and notched up its billionth mobile user in October. —
NEW DELHI — Mobile phones in India must include a panic button from the start of next year and satellite-based location technology from 2018, as officials try to make the nation safer for women.
The emergency feature would be activated by pressing a designated key on a smartphone or holding down the numbers ‘5’ or ‘9’ on a basic device, according to a statement from the Telecommunications Ministry in New Delhi late on Monday.
All manufacturers, including companies such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., would need to comply.
India is among the fastest-growing smartphone markets and has about one billion mobile phone users. That’s spurred demand for technology-based security assistance in a nation with an average of four rapes an hour and one of the world’s lowest police-to-citizen ratios.
“A panic button should be relatively easy to implement,” said Neil Shah, research director for devices and ecosystems at Counterpoint Technology Market Research in Mumbai. Adding satellite-based global positioning to cheaper handsets could be harder, but about 90 per cent of the devices shipped by 2018 will probably be smartphones, he said.
Security
The emergency button must be in place by January next year, followed by satellite-based location technology from the start of 2018. When pressed, the panic feature will dial emergency services, though the statement doesn’t specify which number. There are already a number of apps available in India that do something similar.
India currently has no centralised 911-type service for emergency calls, though a single, nationwide emergency response number — 112 — is due to be introduced
Making women feel safe
> The emergency button in mobile phones must be in place by January next year, followed by satellite-based location technology from the start of 2018.
> To activate the emergency feature the user must press a designated key on a smartphone or hold down the numbers ‘5’ or ‘9’ on a basic device.
> When pressed, the panic feature will dial emergency services.
> India currently has no centralised 911-type service for emergency calls, though a single, nationwide emergency response number — 112 — is due to be introduced in the next few months.
> All manufacturers, including companies such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., will need to comply with the new rule.
> The latest official figures show 36,735 rapes were reported across the country in 2014.
Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Communications Minister
in the next few months.
Reports of attacks on women in India have reverberated around the world, especially a fatal gang rape of a medical student in New Delhi in 2012, increasing pressure on officials to make the country a safer place. Maneka Gandhi, India’s minister for women and child development, proposed panic buttons last year.
“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women,” Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
India has struggled to curb high levels of sexual violence, a problem that shot to global prominence with the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi in December 2012 as she returned home from the cinema.
That incident led to an overhaul of India’s rape laws including speeding up of trials and tougher penalties for offenders, but high numbers of assaults persist.
The latest official figures show 36,735 rapes were reported across the country in 2014, although activists say the actual number is likely much higher with many crimes going unreported due to the social stigma they attract.
India is the world’s second-largest mobile market and notched up its billionth mobile phone subscriber in October, according to the country’s telecoms regulator.