In an attempt to render security for women in India, Indian government has passed a mandatory order that all the mobile phones must have a panic button starting from January 1. 2017. In a bid to make a mobile phone handset an effective tool for self protection, especially for women, the government has said no such device will be disposed of from next year without a single key panic button to connect the closest redressal agency.
The panic button, which is mandatory on every mobile phone allow users to make emergency calls at the touch of a button. This order passed by the Telecom department will be made mandatory for all mobile phones to be sold in India from next year on i.e., from January 1, 2017. Apart from the new panic button, the government has also made an in-built GPS navigation system mandatory for all mobile phones by 2018. The move is aimed at enhancing safety of people in the country. This follows a similar move for one emergency ‘112’ number for availing services of police, ambulance and fire department.
“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women. I have taken a decision that from January 1, 2017, no cell phone can be sold without a provision for panic button, and from January 1, 2018, mobile sets should also have Global Positioning System inbuilt,” Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi on Monday.
Aside from specifying the panic button deadline, an official notification, dated April 22, specifies that feature phones that are unable to incorporate a separate button should be able to make emergency calls by pressing numeric keys 5 or 9. According to the order, the emergency call should activate by long-pressing the separate button (or the existing power button) or by short-clicking it three times.
The notification did not specify which agency would connect the number, but sources in the ministry said the decision will be taken soon.
The notification says: “Smartphones without the facility of emergency call button by pressing the same for long time to invoke emergency call or the use of existing power on or off button, when short pressed thrice in quick succession.”
The notification added: “With effect from January 1, 2018, no mobile phone handset manufacturing company shall sell the new mobile phone handset in India without the facility of identifying the location through satellite-based GPS.”
Some of the leading smartphone manufacturing firms like Vivo, Xiaomi and Karbonn whom IANS tried to contact for a reaction declined to comment on the notification as of now. In March this year, the government had proposed that people will have to just dial “112” for emergency help from police, ambulance or the fire department.