Chennai: “About 10 lakh people have downloaded Kavalan SOS app so far in Chennai and on an average around 25,000 people are downloading it per day,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Thousand Lights, H Jayalakshmi.
Speaking to News Today, she said, “A series of campaigns about the importance of the app will be conducted until all people in city download it.”
The Kavalan app helps police reach out on time during emergency. Recently, two women alerted the police through the app. The police provided immediate assistance to them thus preventing sexual harassment at a hospital and a cinema theatre respectively, the police official said.
On asked about the number of calls registered through the app, she said, majority of the calls were received from college students (girls). Procedures have been developed to receive feedback from the public, with respect to improvisation of the application. “There are certain ideas like improvising the interconnectivity on travelling from State to State has been suggested which would make the application more effective,” she said.
The Kavalan SOS application thrives to provide emergency police assistance to women, children and senior citizen in distress like abduction, sexual harassment, natural calamities and other unfortunate incidents. This less than 6 MB application can be downloaded in all Android and iOS and demands a registration with requisite access to location, contact etc of the individual’s gadget along with the primary requirement of providing three contacts from the immediate circle of the individual.
“When an individual feels defenceless, she/he can press the SOS button present in the app or shake the phone three times. This will alert the master control room and within seconds, the camera of the individual’s gadget is activated, recorded and thus the emergency message is sent to the nearby police stations and the three contacts provided. Thus the individual in distress is provided with police assistance immediately,”Jayalakshmi said.
Senior citizens too can make use of it
The newly-introduced app will not only help women, but also the elderly, said T Nagar District Assistant Commissioner of Police, Radhakrishnan.
“If and when senior citizens find anyone suspicious, they can use the app and avail the services of the police immediately,” he said during an event organised at Postal Colony, West Mambalam recently.
“Within five seconds of pressing the red button in the Kavalan SOS app, the police control room will be alerted and a team will rush to rescue the victim within 15 minutes,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, T Nagar District, D Ashok Kumar.
(Article written by Afrin Fowmitha)