Rajnath announces special women safety feature in pan-India emergency app

Home Minister Rajnath Singh Saturday announced a pan-India single-number emergency mobile app and said it will have a special women safety feature to get immediate assistance from police and volunteers.

A 'SHOUT' feature has been made available exclusively for women in the '112 India' mobile app which is connected to the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), he said while launching the service in Nagaland.

The home minister said using the 'SHOUT' feature, women in distress will able to seek immediate assistance from nearby registered volunteers as well as from Emergency Response Centre.

"This app will assist the first responders in locating and tracking the woman in distress using GPS for effective response," he said.

The home minister said nearly half of India's population are women and the country in which women are safe, is strong and no one can stop the development of that country.

Singh said to ensure safety and security of women, the government has taken various initiatives, which include the creation of women safety division and fast track courts to deal with sexual assault related cases.

He congratulated people of the state, its government, the Nagaland Police for their efforts in launching the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) project in Nagaland, the first state among northeastern states to commence it.

"Under the ERSS project, people will be able to receive immediate assistance from police, health and fire departments as well as from other agencies using a pan-India single emergency number 112," he said.

The ERSS has been integrated with police (100), fire (101), health (108) and women (1090) helpline numbers to provide emergency services through the emergency number '112'.

The single number for various emergency services, which is similar to the '911', all-in-one emergency service in the US, will be gradually rolled out across the country, an official said.

Himachal Pradesh was the first state to launch the project early this week, followed by Nagaland Saturday.