Indian students develop jewellery device for women safety

New Delhi: Concerned over increasing incidents of crime against women, a group of five engineering students has developed a jewellery device called 'Safer' which could be used to trigger alarm and send signals to pre-identified phone numbers, police as well as nearby users in case of emergency.

'Safer' is a pendant made of rust-proof and non-corrosive metal casing, with a fashionable coloured stone that has the safety mechanism below it. The device will be linked to wearer's mobile using an application. In case of emergency, a double click on the device will send an alert to the registered numbers of the user's guardians or friends, to the nearest PCR and the people in the vicinity using the same application.

The recipients will able to track the user's location using GPS. The jewellery device has been developed by four students of Delhi Technological University (DTU) -- Avinash Bansal, Chiraag Kapil, Ayush Banka, Manik Mehta -- and a student of IIT Delhi, Paras Batra.

Priced at Rs 3,500, the device which has already brought the group awards at various national and international business and technology competitions, will be available on sale by end of this month.

"The incidents of crime against women have been on the rise. Safety gadgets, pepper spray and other such things are available in the market but how feasible they are? If a girl is being attacked by a person, how much time she gets to fetch the spray or any device from her bag and use it," said Manik Mehta.

"We searched for other high end devices available in the market but then they are costly and unaffordable for a large section of girls who are at the receiving end of eve-teasing and such attacks. "So, we wanted to come up with something which is not only practically feasible but also affordable. It has been designed to operate even without Internet or mobile networks. The wearer can choose a guardian who can be contacted at the time of distress or emergency," Mehta added.

The device is also water-resistant and will be available with three options for the stones-Onxy Black, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green. "We wanted the device to be stylish which the women can confidently sport with different dresses. So, far it will only be available as a pendant but in future we plan to develop bracelets and rings as well," said Paras Batra.

"Also, if the device is stolen, it will not work without the phone that is paired with it. If you find your 'SAFER' has been stolen, simply mark your device as lost in the app. We will track its location and may even be able to help you get it back!" Batra added.

Batra said the device is in its final testing phase before being finally launched in the market. "We have circulated around 50 devices for testing purposes and are getting feedbacks on how well is it working. We have a back up of 1,000 devices for now. We will develop more once the first phase receives good response from users," he added.