The Hindu : National : SMS to trap harassing men

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 02, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

SMS to trap harassing men

Women can send message to a helpdesk
It will alert the nearest police station

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Women’s Commission is all set to launch an SMS alert service to trap men harassing women. If a woman finds herself being harassed, she just needs to send a text message, ‘Vanitha’[space], to a number to be announced shortly.

On getting the alert, the helpdesk at the commission will inform the nearest police station from where the message is sent.

Before doing so, a preliminary verification will be done to ascertain if the message is genuine, V.P. Ramachandran, Secretary of the commission, said.

“We have worked out the nitty-gritty of the proposal and submitted it to the government for clearance from the IT Department. Discussions are also on with service providers like BSNL. We expect the system to be through by this month-end,” he said.

The messages will be simultaneously received on the main server of the commission’s office and the mobile phones of the designated officers.

The commission has introduced a SMS facility to reply to queries on the status of pending cases by sending a message ‘Vanitha’ followed by the file number of the case. An online facility for lodging fresh complaints has also been launched by the commission on its web site www.keralawomenscommission.govt.in. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National