The Indian Telecom ministry has announced that as from 2017, all new mobile phones sold in India must have a panic button that enables users to make emergency calls.
This announcement was made in line with measures to improve safety for women. There has been an increase in cases of women in India being raped, bathed in harmful liquids and even murdered. According to government data, there is a rape in India every 30 minutes.
Numeric keys 5 and 9 will be used for panic buttons in feature phones, while smartphone manufacturers will have to introduce a new button or feature to send emergency alerts. Smartphone users should be able to make an emergency call by pressing the panic button for a long time, or by pressing the power on and off button in quick succession three times.
“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women,” India’s telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a statement.
India does not have a national emergency yet, but plans to introduce 112 as its single emergency response number across the country in the next few months.
The announcement also stated that in-built GPS navigation will be mandatory for all phones from 2018.
