Starting March 2016, just dial 9 to send panic alert to police & dear ones (India)

Help will soon be just a button-push away for women in distress. The Government of India is all set to roll out the panic alert button facility for mobile devices next year. Starting March 2016, users will be able to send an immediate alert to police and friends or family by long pressing '9' on their smartphones. The functionality has been in works for quite a while and will bolster women's safety in the country.

Apart from dialing the 9 button, users can also press the volume buttons together, which will also act as a panic trigger and alert nearby police or the people close to them. The panic button will provide information on the location of the person in distress. 

"Long pressing on 9 will activate the trigger and will provide location information of the person."

Smartphone makers have been asked to upgrade their handsets to support the feature. Existing smartphone users will get this feature via software update, while feature phone users will need to go to their respective brand's retail outlets to get the panic button enabled.

Maneka Gandhi, Women & child development minister, came up with the idea of a panic button for women. Earlier, there were plans to roll-out a smartphone app with same functionality, but the decision was dismissed since majority of people in rural areas do not use smartphone.

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative