Violence against
women or VAW, as it is collectively known, hit the headlines as never before since that fateful night of December 16 last year when the gruesome gang rape of a student took place in the national capital of
Delhi. And today, exactly a year after the incident, we are still not sure how safe Indian women are in spite of fierce, nationwide protests and more stringent laws.
But it is heartening to see that the
tech community of India has taken up the cudgels against VAW and come up with quite a few
safety apps that help women seek assistance via their mobiles. Some of these safety alerts work just fine while others are a bit cumbersome to handle and may not be of much help when there is an ‘
SOS' situation.
Nasik-based
mobile apps and game development start-up
Dreamaxo Technologies has, however, gone one step ahead and launched today an all-purpose, gender-neutral
Android app to help anyone in any kind of
distress situation. Developed by
Vishal Labhade and
Prasad Mate, the app, called
weCare India, covers
all types of emergencies such as
sexual assault,
robbery,
gunfire,
hostile situation,
illegal activities,
natural calamities and more.
Simply put, weCare integrates an
emergency response system with a
mobile device (any
Android phone using Version 2.2 and up can use it) – so that one can instantly connect to
relatives and
friends if he/she is in any kind of distress. You can also specify the exact
nature of emergency (as listed above) before sending your
help request and the app will immediately track
caller location. weCare uses a high-end GPS system for location tracking and works as efficiently even when the mobile doesn’t have any Internet connection.
But how does it work in the first place? To use the Emergency Help function, you need to set a ‘Guardian’s’ contact first (well, the ‘Guardian’ is the person you want to contact first and fast in case of an emergency). As soon as you press the emergency button, you will be asked what type of emergency you are in. Select one from the list of emergencies and an
emergency message will be sent to your contact, along with emergency type, your
current GPS location and the cell ID of your
network provider. If the process seems a bit lengthy, just use the
emergency help widget and the help request can be sent with just one stroke.
Users can also access an in-built list of
key emergency contacts (
ambulance,
hospitals,
blood banks,
fire brigade,
bomb detection squads,
railway stations,
utility services and so on) across the country. Moreover, you are reporting a hostile situation or some illegal activity in your locality, this app allows you to do so without disclosing your identity.
weCare can be downloaded from
Google Play (http://bit.ly/1kOy89G) for free and occupies very little space (less than 1 MB). We sure hope this app becomes cross-platform soon, so that people using
Symbian,
BlackBerry,
Windows Phone or
iOS can also
get instant help or
help authorities as all responsible citizens should. After all, expanding our awareness and raising our voice are the sure-fire ways to make life better for all of us.
