Here’s An ‘Emergency’ App To Bail You Out Of Distress Situations, But You Can Do Even More…

Violence against women or VAW, as it is collectively known, hit the headlines as never before since that fateful night of December 16 last year when the gruesome gang rape of a student took place in the national capital of Delhi. And today, exactly a year after the incident, we are still not sure how safe Indian women are in spite of fierce, nationwide protests and more stringent laws.

But it is heartening to see that the tech community of India has taken up the cudgels against VAW and come up with quite a few safety apps that help women seek assistance via their mobiles. Some of these safety alerts work just fine while others are a bit cumbersome to handle and may not be of much help when there is an ‘SOS' situation.

Nasik-based mobile apps and game development start-up Dreamaxo Technologies has, however, gone one step ahead and launched today an all-purpose, gender-neutral Android app to help anyone in any kind of distress situation. Developed by Vishal Labhade and Prasad Mate, the app, called weCare India, covers all types of emergencies such as sexual assault, robbery, gunfire, hostile situation, illegal activities, natural calamities and more.

Simply put, weCare integrates an emergency response system with a mobile device (any Android phone using Version 2.2 and up can use it) – so that one can instantly connect to relatives and friends if he/she is in any kind of distress. You can also specify the exact nature of emergency (as listed above) before sending your help request and the app will immediately track caller location. weCare uses a high-end GPS system for location tracking and works as efficiently even when the mobile doesn’t have any Internet connection.

But how does it work in the first place? To use the Emergency Help function, you need to set a ‘Guardian’s’ contact first (well, the ‘Guardian’ is the person you want to contact first and fast in case of an emergency). As soon as you press the emergency button, you will be asked what type of emergency you are in. Select one from the list of emergencies and an emergency message will be sent to your contact, along with emergency type, your current GPS location and the cell ID of your network provider. If the process seems a bit lengthy, just use the emergency help widget and the help request can be sent with just one stroke.

Users can also access an in-built list of key emergency contacts (ambulance, hospitals, blood banks, fire brigade, bomb detection squads, railway stations, utility services and so on) across the country. Moreover, you are reporting a hostile situation or some illegal activity in your locality, this app allows you to do so without disclosing your identity.

weCare can be downloaded from Google Play (http://bit.ly/1kOy89G) for free and occupies very little space (less than 1 MB). We sure hope this app becomes cross-platform soon, so that people using Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Phone or iOS can also get instant help or help authorities as all responsible citizens should. After all, expanding our awareness and raising our voice are the sure-fire ways to make life better for all of us.