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Security on your sleeve
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USMAN FEROZE meets two NIFT graduates who have devised a safety jacket for women.
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DELHI'S POWER woes may be far from over, but a small dose of electricity could now work wonders for the confidence and security of its often harassed women on the street. Two National Institute of Fashion Technology students have designed a garment that could act as a protective shield by giving an electric shock to an aggressor.
The garment, designed by Shilpi Vaish and Kumar Roshan, looks like any normal jacket, but beneath it is a concealed device of a wire mesh and an electric circuit. The wearer can activate the circuit to jolt anyone who tries to molest her. The wearer is safe from the shock because of an insulation. "It's a garment that can act as a protective shield to the wearer against any kind of malafide attempt of molestation," says Vaish, who along with Roshan, wants to help the society fight evil against its women.
"Any person with a malafide intention attempting to touch the wearer of this garment gets a shock good enough to push him back, restricting his attempt and creating fear in him," says Roshan. The wearer thus gets sufficient time to run to safety or call for help or even stage a counter-attack. The electric circuit gets activated only at the will of the wearer, at the press of a switch hidden in a waistband. The gadget, designed by the duowhile being students at NIFT, Kolkata, contains a nine volt battery from which the current passes through a mesh of wires placed between the fabric and the interlining.
Looking for market
The designers, who are working as garment manufacturing technologists in the National Capital Territory after they passed out in June this year, are keen to find market for their product. "We, specially those in Delhi, hear of so many cases of violence against women that we slowly start believing that this is a societal problem and one can not do much individually. I am glad that our students, Shilpi and Roshan have looked at the issue differently and have taken the first step towards making a difference," says Rajesh Bheda, Professor at the Garment Manufacturing Technology department of NIFT, New Delhi.
Electric gadgets that shock a person are nothing new. In India, the Defence Research and Development Organisation manufactures an electric baton, `Jwala', which is used by the police to disperse an agitating mob. But a protective garment for women is the first such safety shield against increasing incidence of violence against women. "Violence against women in the society provoked us to design some garment that could make a woman self-sufficient and well-equipped to protect herself," says Vaish. "We wanted the knowledge and technical know-how that NIFT imparted to us to be put to good use." The designers found that while the garment manufacturing industry makes wrinkle-free and insect and odour-resistant clothes, there were not any that could fit their description.
A market survey conducted by the designers among 100 women in Kolkata found that 99 per cent of them favoured such a protective garment. According to criminal procedure code, wearing such garments is legal, say the designers. The electric gadget, which weighs only 450 gms, can be removed from the jacket with ease. Once in the shops, the cost of the jacket will be Rs.855, which includes the Rs.440 price of the device.
Their work on the jacket over, the designers now face an even difficult task - to make it available to its beneficiaries.
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