Speed up project for women's safety: Rajnath Singh

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asked for speedy implementation of a project aimed at ensuring safety of women, especially in cities. The measures in the project involves a distress SOS being sent to the police by pressing a button on the mobile phone, proposed to the government after the Nirbhaya gang rape case in Delhi.

Reviewing crime against women and the Nirbhaya Fund Project, the home minister was informed during a meeting on Tuesday that a project for providing speedy assistance to respond to the calls from women in distress was approved by the Union Cabinet on February 4, 2014.

"Distress/ emergency alarms generated by woman, by pressing a button, through her mobile phones/devices will land at the police control room which would immediately arrange to dispatch emergency PCR van to assist the individual in distress. The proposed system is to be implemented in the identified 114 towns and cities. The home minister raised concern regarding the delay in kicking-off the project. It was decided that the project should be implemented expeditiously. He desired to review it personally soon with all stakeholders," the Union home ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Regarding the cyber crime project, the home minister stated that India had 916 million phone subscribers and 239 million internet users currently but the incidence of cybercrime recorded in 2012 is only 3,477 crimes. Singh directed that an appropriate body working in the software industry be utilised for providing the guidance and mentorship to the police in the States to enable them to develop their capacities to fight cybercrime.