Starting March, Dial 9 to Send Panic Alert to Police & Dear Ones

BANGALORE: Taking safety measures to a notch higher, Modi government has come up with a panic alert facility which is slated to get launched in March 2016 where a gentle long press on digit 9 in mobile phones can send in an automatic alert to nearby police and dear ones. This feature had been in process for a long time in a quest to ensure the safety of females in the nation, reports TOI.

Mobile handsets produced in the near future will send alerts when volume buttons will be pressed together.

The alert will notify the location of the distressed person. Government is launching the feature in March with the aid of handset makers and mobile operators.

Maneka Gandhi, Women & Child Development Minister, is the person behind this idea. A recent meeting of the ministries of communication & information technology and women & child development with the service providers and handset makers led to a final decision on this program. The program took long to get launched as there was a confusion so as to roll out an app or introduce a separate button for the same.

Considering an app is not the practical solution and making the feature available to most basic handsets, deliberations were made.

"Every handset, as explained by the service providers, works on a program. It was felt that rather than having an extra button or providing an app, it was advisable to upgrade the existing program of the mobile phone," a senior official with knowledge of the development said. "The upgrade will configure the phone accordingly so that each time the digit 9 is pressed, an alert is sent to the police and family members or friends of the individual".

For existing phones, upgrade will be available and the Department of Telecommunications will send a formal order for software upgrade to the service providers.

Read More: 'Women, Small Farmers Should Be Brought Under Financial Inclusion'
Award Wapsi to Intolerance: 8 Political Controversies Of 2015