Union minister Maneka Gandhi said on Friday that, very soon all the cell phones will be equipped with a panic button to assist women in distress. The existing and new cell phone both will be covered in this plan.
The minister for women and child development told Lok Sabha, from now every cell phone will have an in-built panic button. But in the case of all old cell phones, you can go to the store who owns the company and they would do it for you. If a woman is in trouble she just has to press the button on cell phone and she will immediately rescue.
Sources said if the button was pressed for more than a few seconds, it would call a pre-determined number, fed by the user earlier.
The WCD and the telecom ministries have begun working on the proposal which is likely to be completed in the next six months.
Maneka was addressing concerns told by Lok Sabha members on lack of safety for women and growing crime. The government admitted that the condition in India was not good and asserted that a number of steps had been taken to empower them and tackle the challenges facing them, which will result in women doing “much better” in a couple of years.
She also added that the government had set up 10 women crisis centers and planned to increase them to 660 in all districts.
