MEG-CopWatch - Women Safety

An app for quick response to women and children in distress by Meghalaya Police

Ever since the Nirbhaya gang rape in December 2012, the central and state governments across the country have stepped up efforts to prevent heinous crimes against women. In this, early detection and quick response by the police were recognized as effective means to hinder assailants from committing heinous crimes. Consequently, many metropolitan cities have introduced applications such the Nirbhaya app, the Fightback App, MeAgainstRape app, etc. These applications allow women and children in distress to send an alert to the nearest police station/ police control room/ their own emergency contacts through their smart phones along with their Geo-location and any audio-visual content.

In this light, this concept paper proposes a customized app ‘MEG-CopWatch’ for launching in the city of Shillong. It may be noted that the population of Shillong is better placed to utilize the features of the app than those of other cities due to the high literacy rate of 92.8% (as per the 2011 census) and the widespread use of smart phone applications. For better understanding of the concept of the MEG-CopWatch app, the paper shall now present the different features of the application.