Quick response, trained responders: safety app a hit

“It is a first-of-its-kind app in the country to protect women in distress,” former state Home minister Mekathoti Sucharita said. “We have deployed special patrol vehicles, which are connected to the Disha control room through GPS, where the staff will respond in 4-5 minutes in cities and towns, and 8-10 minutes in villages.”

The Disha control room is located in Tech Tower at AP Police Headquarters in Mangalagiri.

According to DIG G Pala Raju, who is in charge of the Disha programme, the control room has received more than 10,000 actionable SOS calls since the app was launched, and these have led to nearly 1,500 FIRs being filed.

Based on SOS calls, police have been identifying and geo-tagging sexual offenders, cyber bullies and stalkers targeting women.

The app has also helped women in other emergencies, such as when a flat tyre left a woman stranded on a deserted road, or when a pregnant woman had to be rushed to a hospital. Disha patrol vehicles have safely dropped such stranded women at their homes or hospitals.

The app’s SOS button not only sends an alert to Disha Command Control Centre, but it also alerts five phone numbers that can be registered as emergency contacts. If the app’s hand gesture feature is turned on, even shaking the mobile phone five times will lead to an SOS alert being sent. A ‘track my travel’ feature is also available on the app which can be activated if one is travelling alone.

On March 23, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy flagged off a fleet of 163 Disha patrol vehicles to further reduce the response time. Eighteen ‘Disha Caravans’ — buses equipped with a washroom, rest and changing rooms for the convenience of women police officers in the field — were also added to the Disha fleet. Each mobile restroom vehicle costs Rs 19 lakh and 30 have been ordered. Around 900 scooters are also being introduced. Disha patrol now has 900 two-wheelers and 3,000 other vehicles.

Former minister Sucharita said the issue of women’s safety became urgent after the November 2019 rape-murder of a veterinary doctor on Hyderabad’s outskirts. Since then, besides the app, 18 Disha police stations have been opened to deal exclusively with women’s issues. The doctor was given the pseudonym Disha, and the women’s safety app was named after her.