Trials for Panic Button Feature on Mobile Phones in India to Begin From January 26

Union Minister Maneka Gandhi today stated that a pilot project to test the ‘panic button‘ feature on mobile phones would kickstart from January 26. The project will be rolled out in a phased manner, and it will kickstart from Uttar Pradesh on the said date. The panic button on mobile phones is to ensure women safety in the country.

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For the unaware, back in April 2016, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had directed mobile phone manufacturers to add a panic button in their mobile phones by January 2017. Under the order, the DoT said that the phones should have a panic button in the form of numeric key 5 or 9, which will be easier to invoke emergency voice calls.

Also, mobile phone users should have the ability to enable/disable the panic button. The panic button for mobile phones was supposed to be implemented a lot earlier, but it has been delayed for some unknown reasons.

“The pilot project (to test the panic button backed by a real-time police response) will start in the state of UP from January 26,” the Women and Child Development (WCD) minister told to reporters during an event in New Delhi as reported by PTI.

As stated, this will be first rolled out in Uttar Pradesh. “If it works in UP, it can work anywhere,” the minister added in a veiled reference to the high crime rate in the northern state.

It is also said by Chetan Sanghi, Joint Secretary, WCD that all the new mobile phones in the country will now come with a panic button, and the back-end architecture will be set up in Uttar Pradesh.