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India Makes It Compulsory For Phones To Have a 'Panic Button' (cio.com)

Posted by msmash on from the women-safety dept.

Reader itwbennett writes: Starting in January 2017, all feature phones sold in India will need to have a panic button that will alert "police, designated friends and relatives, for immediate response in case of distress or security related issues," said Minister of Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad, on Twitter late Tuesday. The measure is one of many responses by the Indian government to the growing women safety issues in the country. Furthermore, starting in January 2018, mobile phones will also be required to have GPS systems to help pinpoint the location of the affected person in the event of harassment or distress, said Prasad.Mashable has more details.

3 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. False alarms? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How many butt-dialed panics will that generate per day per square mile?

    1. Re:False alarms? by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Most of India lives in very tight quarters, if you think cities like New York and Tokyo are cramped then Dehli would shock you. Also they select children with a preference for boys over girls (not to Chinese degree, but it still is certainly a 'thing'), with boys in a often superior cultural role over girls. Combine these two and it's no surprise some boys can't keep their hands to themselves. I bet many feel safely anonymous most of the time. They also have a culture social class structure to make this all the worse.

      So I'm not terribly surprised that this combination has lead to severe issues.

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
  2. Growing women safety issues by PPH · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Buy every woman a gun. A panic button isn't going to do them any good because many police there empathize with social conservatives who are doing most of the harassment. Cops either show up late or not at all. Prosecutors reflect the same attitudes and value the life of a male aggressor more than a female victim. So turn the tables on them. Either drag the scumbag men off the street and put them in 'protective custody' or bring the coroners wagon to the scene after a failed attack.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.