Police upgrades women’s safety app

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police on Tuesday launched an upgraded version of its women’s safety app, the third in a row, to plug loopholes in the mobile application and offer a wide range of features to its users. Lt Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal launched the revamped app ‘Himmat Plus’. The app comes in English and Hindi, and has a special feature for scanning the QR codes of taxi, auto-rickshaw and e-rickshaw drivers to verify their details.

Launched as a pilot project, the app can be used by women commuters coming out of Delhi Airport and five metro stations — Anand Vihar, Vishwa Vidyalaya, Malviya Nagar, Saket and Nehru Place. Baijal said that the app would act as a deterrent to crime against women, and make them more confident while travelling.

The L-G also hoped that the model is implemented in the entire city. “Women are little vulnerable while travelling and when they board a taxi or an auto-rickshaw, they do not know if it is safe. This upgraded app will definitely empower them and boost their confidence,” Baijal said.

The L-G also announced the constitution of a technology council in the Delhi police. The council would give inputs on various aspects of crime prevention and detection using technology. The app has been transformed from an emergency safety app to a ‘utility’ app. The process of registration has also been simplified. Now anybody can download it on mobile phones unlike the previous app for which one had to visit the Delhi police’s website.

The Facebook page of the Delhi Traffic Police and the Twitter handle have also been linked to the app to provide traffic updates and other information. The application was first launched in 2015 and despite its relaunch in April last year, it found few takers. It was then the Delhi police engaged students from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Okhla, to come up with a better structure for the app. The student’s group also conducted a survey to study the failures of the app.