Government to launch 3 initiatives centering women's safety

With a view to ensuring better safety of women, the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry will on Tuesday launch three initiatives, including safety tool "Panic Button" and DNA analysis facilities, said an official on Monday.

The initiatives will be jointly launched by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi.

The Panic Button, which was conceived in 2015, will be launched across 14 states at a cost of Rs 321.69 crore made available from the Nirbhaya Fund, said an official statement.

This emergency response system was soft-launched in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland recently.

Safe City Implementation Monitoring (SCIM), a web portal developed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), will also be launched at Tuesday's event which will help online track deployment of assets and infrastructure created under the Safe City projects.

The DNA analysis centres will have facilities like refrigeration of samples, automated DNA extractor and sequencer, centrifuges and genetic analysers, among others. A sum of Rs 78.86 crore has been sanctioned for this initiative.

"WCD and Home ministries are collaborating intensively to ensure that women are safe in the country. Besides, the initiatives referred above, fast-track special courts for cases of sexual assaults are also being set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Law for which Rs 767 crore has been sanctioned from the Nirbhaya Fund," Maneka Gandhi said in the statement.

--IANS

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