Mobile phones to feature panic button to help women in distress

From March 2016, mobile phone will provide panic buttons in handsets  that would send alerts to the police in the event of an emergency.

The initiativre is being credited to women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi.

The department of telecommunications will soon issue regulations in this regard.

The plan has been finalised with the consensus of mobile manufacturers and is expected to help address the issues of women's security as both new and existing phones would be able to install the enhanced feature.

''It took us one year to finalize this initiative. We held several meetings with mobile companies and they have finally agreed to provide panic buttons in mobile phones,'' PTI quoted the minister. ''If a woman feels she is in trouble, the only thing she has to do is press that button and it will immediately send a message to the police,'' she said.

According to Gandhi, while the new handsets would come with in-built buttons, customers would be able to upgrade their phones at dedicated centres. ''We have asked the companies to built at least 10,000 centres across the country to facilitate mobile phone users in upgrading their phones and adding the button,'' she said.

According to a Times of India report the digit 9 would be used as the panic button. "A gentle long press of the digit 9 on your existing mobile phone will send an immediate alert to the police and your near and dear ones," the report said.

"In future handsets, the volume buttons, when pressed together, will act as the trigger," it futher added.

Various apps are available for smartphones that allow users to send emergency alerts to their near and dear ones, but these are not easy to operate as one has to first unlock the phone and then open the app to trigger the panic signal.

A number of companies had also brought out some models with dedicated SOS buttons but, given their substandard hardware, they failed to gain traction in the market.