Govt may introduce panic buttons in cell phones for women's safety, says Maneka Gandhi

New Delhi: For women’s safety, the government is considering introduction of a panic button in cell phones and has asked all mobile phone manufacturers to work out the feasibility of such a feature, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said on Friday . “When we asked for suggestions about what precautions can the girls take to keep themselves safe and escape out of emergency situations, we were flooded with ideas including wearing specialized necklaces, bracelets and rings which had certain SOS message sending features. [caption id=“attachment_2453132” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maneka Gandhi in a file photo. AFP[/caption] “Why should we do that? Are women prisoners so they always have to move with these devices? How can we ensure availability, affordability and usage of these devices among rural women,” the minister said while addressing a ‘Student Parliament’ on issues faced by girl students. She said considering the limitations of these devices, the government has come up with an idea of having inbuilt panic button in all cell phones. “The phones will have a panic button which will be GPS connected. We are in conversation with phone manufacturers and the proposal is likely to be executed in few months,” Maneka said. The administration is of the view that emergency response apps can take too long to access in a rush and configuring one of the existing buttons on a phone for the task would be much simpler and quicker, he said, noting that pressing the panic button will send an SMS to a set of numbers that will also provide location information. Talking about the various schemes rolled out by the NDA government, Maneka said the focus is on initiatives such as ‘beti bachao’, ‘beti padhao’ and reservation for women posts in police stations to ensure an effective interface between the complainants and the police. “The problem is not with schemes, we have enough of them. The task is implementation and we are focussing on the same,” she said. The three-day parliament, which kick-started yesterday is being organised by the BJP’s student wing, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and students representing universities across the country are taking part in the event to discuss issues faced by them and draw the government’s attention towards the need for safety and development plans for them. While first day was dedicated to tribal students at a seminar entitled, ‘Tribal Student-Youth Parliament’, the remaining two days are for ‘Women Student Parliament’ and ‘North East Student-Youth Leaders Parliament’. The report on issues resulting from the discussions of the three student parliaments will be handed over to the ministries concerned in the form of a memorandum. PTI