A mobile app in Delhi aims to protect women

2012-01-17 11:25

分享到

 

A mobile app in Delhi aims to protect women

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

More than 20,000 new products appeared at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Among the attention getters last week were "ultrabooks," or very thin laptop computers. Also, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer announced new smartphones with the Windows Phone operating system.

Far from the bright lights of Vegas are the poorly lit streets of Delhi. A new mobile app called Fight Back aims to make those streets safer for women like Cheena Sikka. She often works late. A company taxi takes her part of the way home, but then she has to walk five to 10 minutes alone.

CHEENA SIKKA: "It's dark and the kind of people who are around are not really to be comfortable with or safe. You cannot feel safe."

Ms Sikka uses Fight Back to follow her location with GPS, or global positioning system, software. Jagdish Mitra is the head of CanvasM Technologies, which recently launched the app.

JAGDISH MITRA: "The moment you feel uncomfortable, you really don't need to do anything else but press one button."

The woman pushes the button on her touchscreen but has a few seconds to cancel her decision. If not, a message with her location will go by text, e-mail or Facebook to anyone she has put on a list.

MALE EMPLOYEE: "Divya has raised a panic alert. She might be in trouble."

The location also appears on a map in the company's offices. But Mr Mitra says his company does not serve as a public monitoring center.

JAGDISH MITRA: "We are not in the provision of, you know, managing the law, if you may. The law has to be managed by the people who actually are authorized to do it, which is the police and so on and so forth."

Officials reported more than 400 rapes in Delhi in 2010. Many media organizations have called the city of 17 million people "India's rape capital."

Kalpana Viswanath is a researcher with the women's group Jagori. She works to make cities safer for women through changes like better lighting and wider sidewalks. She supports Fight Back but has some concerns.

KALPANA VISWANATH: "While the app to me is very important and has a good role to play, I think what we have to be careful about is that it doesn't again fall back on women to solve their problem."

Hindol Sengupta is a founder of Whypoll, a nonprofit group that works on the Fight Back project. He says Indian police often do not take women's safety seriously. He says, "Most women don't go to the police because in most parts of the country, the police are seen as more part of the problem than part of the solution."

HINDOL SENGUPTA: "So we're saying here's a tool -- you can go to the police if you want, and so you should, and so you must. But, in case you choose not to, and in case you can't reach them, you can directly reach out to your friends and family. And together, you can propel the system. You can propel the security apparatus, so to speak, to act."

The makers of Fight Back say police in Delhi and other Indian cities have expressed interest in linking to the system.

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report. You can find a video about Fight Back at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm June Simms.

Related Stories:

All eyes were on tablets at CES in Las Vegas

In consumer electronics, 3-D and all things wireless

Electronics industry hopes for a reset in 2010

There's gold in them thar cell phones

(来源:VOA 编辑:Rosy)

 

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。

中国日报网双语新闻

扫描左侧二维码

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我们这儿都有!

中国日报双语手机报

点击左侧图标查看订阅方式

中国首份双语手机报
学英语看资讯一个都不能少!

关注和订阅

本文相关阅读
人气排行
搜热词
 
 
精华栏目
 

阅读

词汇

视听

翻译

口语

合作

 

关于我们 | 联系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版权声明:本网站所刊登的中国日报网英语点津内容,版权属中国日报网所有,未经协议授权,禁止下载使用。 欢迎愿意与本网站合作的单位或个人与我们联系。

电话:8610-84883645

传真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn