Top SOS apps for WOMEN's SAFETY in India

Get Ahead reader Maninder Pal Singh lists out five apps that can be of immense help to women during emergencies.

Incidents of crime against women have been increasing at an alrming pace in Indian cities especially in metro cities like Delhi. Most common incidents being rape, kidnapping, sexual harassment and eve teasing. While a lot of legal and NGO authorities are coming forward with their plans to prevent such crimes and make the cities safer for women, in this age of technology, mobile phone is one gadget almost every one uses to keep in touch with family and friends.

When mobile phones have become such inseparable part of our lives why not make use of them as weapon of self-defence. I am not suggesting you attack criminals with your mobiles which anyways won't be possible keeping in mind the ever-reducing size and weight of mobile phones.

However, women can definitely make good use of inbuilt technology to use their mobile phones as a SOS tool in case of emergencies.

Here then are five apps just for the purpose.

NOTE: Out of all the apps discussed in this article, FightBack and EyeWatch are the two which have been launched specifically for Indian users.

For the remaining three apps, you may have to contact your network operator to know more about all the features that their apps support in India.

1. FightBack

FightBack is India's first ever mobile application for women's safety launched by an NGO named WhyPoll.

The application makes use of GPS, SMS, location maps, GPRS, e-mail and your Facebook account to send SOS alerts in case of any emergency.

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It works on Nokia smartphones. To check the supported models and to downlowd the application, go to this link http://www.fightbackmobile.com/welcome.

FightBack or even other apps which we will discuss here generally work in a way that users can send emergency (SOS) SMS alerts in case of any danger.

This is made possible by storing a pre-dfined list of emergency mobile numbers (of family, friends, colleagues etc.), police and legal authorities helpline numbers within the application.

So as and when need arises (emergency situations), you can inform everyone together just with a single click of button.

The apps can be integrated with your social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter so that emergency SOS alerts can be posted as a status update with the same single click of button.

GPS feature makes it possible to send the approximate physical location of the victim along with the SOS SMS alert.

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2. EyeWatch

EyeWatch is another great mobile application for women's safety. The application works on almost every type of smartphone -- Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia etc.

The EyeWatch application has some additional features like free fall activation and Video/audio/Images support.

Free fall activation means the application gets activated by itself when mobile phone drops (mobile dropping is a common occurrence in such situations). You can even simply shake the phone to activate it.

The inbuilt audio/video/image support enables the application to even send the images, videos and sound bytes along with the location in SOS alerts.

Another useful features of EyeWatch is that it can work even while you are moving in cars or lifts.

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Even this is not all, there is a provision to even record and send the last conversation that happened on the device along with SOS alerts.

This could be a boon for investigation and legal agencies like police and will help them in tracing and providing help to the victim quickly and in time.

The EyeWatch application was launched as a joint initiative of Indianeye Security Pvt. Ltd. (ISL) and Security Watch India (SWI).

Downloaded this app here: http://www.eye-watch.in/Register.action

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3. Life360 Family Locator

This is a mobile apps which is suitable enough to work on basic mobile phones and on smartphones. It works on Android, iPhone, iPad and iPod devies.

As the name indicate the application is suited for the safety of not only women but of any family member. The app enables you to track the location of the person via GPS technology.

It has a single click panic alarm for all the emergencies.

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The app has some additional good features. You can get details of safety points like hospitals, police and fire stations in your neighborhood.

It even gets you some basic information about any sex offenders in your neighborhood.

However, since the applications was launched primarily to work on any network in USA, not all features will work on India networks.

You may have to check with your network operator in India.

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4. Mobi Tracker LocateMe

Mobi Tracker LocateMe is an applications which can be used by family, friend or relatives of women in trouble.

The application doesn't do more than only finding the location of the person (e.g. women in trouble) and sending it back via SMS.

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However, it is good in case the women herself is not able to take any action. At least her family and friends shall be able to find her whereabouts.

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5. One Touch Location

This is another great application that works on Android and iPhone smarphones. However, women or the user of this app has to be little proactive rather than wait for any emergency to come.

For example, using this apps, women leaving from office at night can send her current location at one click to her family and friends. Her family members will not only get to see the current location but they will also be able to track the current location as she travels back.

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This is done via Google maps which keeps updating the current location in real-time on profile page which can be tracked by family members untill the person reaches home safe.

Since, unforseen or emergency situations can happen with anyone and not only with women, the above discussed applications can also be used as general safety apps for women, family and kids alike.

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