Shimla, Feb 4: The Himachal Pradesh government is committed to ensuring the safety and security of women and has launched two major initiatives to check crime against women, an official said on Sunday.
The government on Republic Day — January 26 — launched ‘Shakti Button App’ and ‘Guddiya Helpline’, a government spokesperson told IANS.
‘Shakti Button App’ has been designed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) Himachal Pradesh for the state police. This App is both in Hindi and English and easy to use.
Any woman at the time of any trouble or distress can press the red button of the App.
Within 20 seconds, the App would send the name, phone number, location of the woman to the police control room and the central control room where a police staff would receive the message and direct the police station or police post concerned for immediate relief to the victim.
The App can also send a message even if the mobile falls on the ground during a scuffle. Apart from the police, two-three registered numbers of close relatives will be informed about the distress situation immediately.
The unique feature of this App is that it does not require any internet connectivity, he said.
It can be downloaded from the Google playstore or from himachal.nic.in on any android phone.
Another women helpline named ‘Guddiya Helpline’ has also been launched to provide assistance to women in case of any emergency.
A toll-free number 1515 has been installed, which is functioning 24×7 to provide immediate assistance to the women.
It also provides automatic video and audio recording of the incident of assault on the victim’s mobile handset, which can be later used as evidence against the offender.
To tackle syndicate crime in the state, be it drug mafia, forest or mining mafia, the government launched the ‘Hoshiyar Singh Helpline’ — also on January 26.
Under this scheme, any information regarding any illegal forest, drug or mining activities can be given on toll-free number 1090.
This scheme is being monitored by the Chief Minister’s Office and the identity of the informer would not be revealed.
‘Guddiya Helpline’ has been named after a schoolgirl who was gang-raped and murdered in July last year. After the crime, the victim was named Guddiya by the public.
The ‘Hoshiyar Singh Helpline’ was named after forest guard Hoshiyar Singh, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Mandi district.
Both incidents took place last year during the stint of the previous Congress government.
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(IANS)
