Delhi Government’s 181 helpline is in the process of launching the country’s first non-internet based telephone application for women in distress in the national Capital. All that one would require to do is to just press the power button of the phone and the helpline would ensure that the caller receives help on the spot within minutes. The new application would be first operational only on the Android phones and later on Windows and other mobile devices. The helpline would be putting the application on the Google Play store for free download. Delhi Government had launched the helpline for women in distress after the Nirbhaya incident about two years ago. Of the 12,11,887 calls made to the 24x7 helpline, it attended as many as 8,51,455 calls till December 8 this year. Civil rights activist and
181 head Khadijah Faruqui said that the helpline had managed to get 6,66,684 cases registered on the basis of the calls it had received so far.
The helpline got registered 4,021 cases of abductions, 615 cases of acid attacks, 12,435 cases of sexual abuse of children, 79,782 cases of domestic violence, 1,771 cases of dowry deaths, 4,967 rape cases, 25,083 cases of sexual assaults and 2,216 cases of stalking. Of the total cases lodged at various police stations, the trial proceedings are reportedly over in as many as
40 per cent cases.
Confirming that the helpline was soon going to launch its first telephone-based application, officials said this would be the first such app, which can be operated without any internet connection. The application has been developed by the Indraprastha Institute of Technology’s Pushpendra Singh and Shradha Jain. All one needs to do is to push the phone’s power button a few times and your Save Our Soul (SOS) message would be automatically transferred to 181.
The helpline head said that the application would be launched soon after getting a static IP address.
“We expect this application to be fully operational in the first week of January, 2015.”
The 181 is reportedly holding talks with the police for getting a dedicated Police Control Room linked to the application. There are also talks going on to link the application with the DCW and other health services.