Best 10 Personal Safety Apps For Women Android

1. Safetipin

SafetiPin is a personal safety app designed to keep you safe.It has a complete set of features; GPS tracking, emergency, important contact numbers, directions to safe locations, pins showing safe and unsafe areas,and a Safety Score.It goes well beyond typical women safety apps, and provides a wide range of features, that help you proactively plan and respond to situations affecting your personal safety. Download From Here

2. VithU App

No one has the time to dial an emergency number when they are in danger. The VithU App lets a potential victim skip through the number-punching, and lets you push your power button twice to instantly send an SOS alert to contacts. Alert messages are sent out every two minutes to listed contacts, who willreceive a message along with your physical location, which will get updated each time the message goes out. [Get It Here]

3. Circle of 6 App

Circle of 6 is a unique app that lets you connect to up to 6 close contacts. The app has different notifications that the user can tap on to alert their circle. If you need a safe ride home or for a familiar face to turn up and take you away from a strange environment, this app will help send an alert to any of your 6 chosen contacts. On top of that, the app can connect you to the proper authorities for an emergency, or even just for relationship advice. [Get It Here]

4. Life360 Family Locator App

Life360 is a multipurpose app to stay in touch with your family members and friends and keep a handle on their location. The app lets you create circles, add people to them and see their locations on a confidential map. This way you’ll be able to always keep track of your family members and confirm that they’re safe and sound. You can share your location with them, or send an alert to your circle members. You can even chat with your circle members for free. As a bonus, you can also use this app to recover your lost or stolen phone.[Get It Here]

5. I’m Shakti App

The I’m Shakti (IMS) app is one that aims to help keep you in control of your “Shakti” (power in Sanskrit). To reach your emergency contact, press the power button 5 times (in 2 seconds) to trigger the app. A preset emergency SMS will be sent along with your GPS location. [Get It Here]

6. Famy Family Chat & Locator App

If you are a parent who has a feisty kid, or one who has to watch over a teenage sibling who has an issue with “personal space”, this may be the locator app you need. The app picks up your exact GPS location and shares the location to the group. Of course, the person whose location is being shared can choose when their location can be disclosed but the app also keeps track of all previous locations and will let users send an SOS message alert when necessary. [Get It Here]

7. Nirbhaya: Be Fearless App

The Nirbhaya App is another app that lets the user send an sms alert or call with a single touch in the event of an emergency. When activated, it will send your precise GPS location to your pre-selected contacts, with exact location updates every 300 meters you move. Other features include the Geo Fence(which helps keep your contacts informed of your location), the ‘Shake to alert’function, and you can use the power button to send out a distress signal. [Get It Here]

9. Watch Over Me App

Watch Over Me is an app that lets your contacts follow you on your journey remotely. The app lets you specify how long you want it to track your GPS location, until you check in from your intended destination.If you fail to do so, it sends anemergency alert to your chosen contacts. Alternatively, in case something bad happens, you can shake your phone to trigger an emergency alert, and your phone’s camera will turn on automatically and start recording. The app also informs you if you’ve entered a high crime rate area. It is available in 7 cities, for now. [Get It Here]

10. Sentinel Personal Security SOS App

The Sentinel Personal security app claims to be the fastest SOS app available in thecurrent market. It lets you send SMS and email alerts, as well as call your emergency contacts when the need arises. The SMS alert will contain yourGPS location, time, and direction of travel. It works even without a working Internet connection or network, which could make the difference between life and death. [Get It Here]

11. Secure Her App

If you stay alone in a place, far from close friends or family, this may be a good alternative app. The Secure Her works by sending out a distress signal as soon as the phone owner double taps on the app’s icon in her phone. Then, a call centre will respond to the distress signal to make sure that help reaches the user. Currently this app is only functional in India, but there are plans to make it available to other parts of the world as well. [Get It Here]

Google Play Store…. Personal & Women Safety App

Google Play Store….. GPS Tracker and Family Tracker

Building 20 Million Toilets Is Not Enough To Keep Women Safe In This Country

A 17-year-old girl- Khoobu Kumari- was found hanging from her house ceiling earlier this month on July 4 in Dumka town in Jharkhand. The teenager decided to end her life because her parents refused to comply with her pleas of having a toilet constructed. A BBC report estimates that around 300 million women and girls comprise the total population of open defecators.

Open defecation has become a matter of shame for a country dreaming to bloom into a superpower. Around half the population- a staggering 594 million people- is known to defecate in the open as per UNICEF data.
However, other than earning India the wrong kind of attention, open defecation has other ramifications; one of them being violence against women. Rakesh Johri, a senior fellow at The Energy Resource Institute, estimates that open defecation “exposes a third of the nation’s women to the risk of rape and sexual assault.”

Water Aid- an international organisation working on improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene-further explains as to how the potential threat of violence outside affects life choices on an everyday basis. In a study conducted by the organisation in 2011, it was found that women living in slums in Delhi and Bhopal tend to eat and drink less so that they do not feel the need to relieve themselves often.

In 2014, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s in his Independence Day address to the nation expressed concerns regarding safety of rural women, who go out to defecate- “The poor womenfolk of the village wait for the night; until darkness descends, they can’t go out to defecate. Can’t we just make arrangements for toilets for the dignity of our mothers and sisters?” As a result, constructing 20 million toilets became the dream project for the year.

But is having more toilets the answer to all our woes? No. For even if toilets are constructed within household premises or at public places, as long as the public space is marked out as masculine, violence against women in public spaces is going to haunt India anyway. The polarisation of the domestic and public space as feminine and masculine, respectively, is what makes women who venture out being characterised as unfeminine, morally loose and thus assailable or punishable. So much so that even the most natural and obvious functions- walks, defecation, shopping, travelling, etc. – that entail venturing out into the already overtly masculine public space becomes dangerous.

According to a 2011 Thomson Reuters’ Trustlaw Women’s survey on the country-wise perception of danger, India is the fourth most dangerous place for women. Unless issues of women’s safety are effectively addressed, social bias against them will continue to exist, leaving the approximately 6 million women who inhabit India today vulnerable to violence.

Let Khoobu not become just a statistic but the precursor of a change we urgently need.
Found on... http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2015/07/womens-safety-in-india/
Google Play Store... Personal & Women Safety App

Tracking through SafetiPin

The recent events in Delhi have once again highlighted the need to be careful, and take appropriate safety precautions.  It is also important to maintain perspective and not allow specific incidents to change the way we live our lives.

The SafetiPin tracking feature is something that allows the user of the app to control their lives a bit more and be safer.  It is not a stalking app – in that control is with the person being tracked and not the tracker.  Hence women and other vulnerable individuals can use this Personal safety app when they feel uncomfortable and want someone to know where they are, without necessarily being tracked at all times.

The SafetiPin tracking feature works when both the tracker and the person(s) tracking have the SafetiPin app installed.  They can be Android, or Apple, or Windows users.

       

The person who wants to be tracked can identify friends who can track them in Settings.  Once this is done, tracking will be started once the person selects the ‘Track Me’ option in the Menu.  This will continue till the same key is selected again.

The receiver can see all the people who wish to be tracked by selecting the ‘Track’ option from the Menu.  They will see the route being taken by the person as a pin every two minutes.

There is also an ‘Emergency’ feature.  Selecting the Emergency button, sends sms and emails to selected friends, who do not need to be SafetiPin users.  Tracking is possible even on a browser.  The Emergency can be called off only by selecting a special code, to prevent a person being coerced into sending the message.

Source…. www.safetipin.com

Call for Internships at Safetipin 2015

About

SafetiPin is a map-based mobile phone application which works to make our communities and cities safer by providing safety-related information collected by users.

The organisation works to promote safety of women and has since its inception created a technology platform to address the urgent issue of safety in cities across the world.

Safetipin’s team has done ground breaking work in collecting large scale safety data from 12 cities in the world and have successfully used this data for advocacy. We work with the leading women’s oganisations in India and partner with them to bring change.

Purpose of Internships:

We encourage applicants from skilled and motivated young people to serve as interns at Safetipin. The purpose of the internship is to provide an opportunity for individuals to substantively contribute to and learn from our work in the area of women’s safety,

technology and urban planning. The intern will be given specific tasks and responsibilities and will be challenged to develop their capabilities and gain experience.

The intern is expected to be flexible and to take part in various activities at the office and sometimes in the field.

Requirements:

We expect applicants to have at least a first degree; and Masters degree students are encouraged. We are looking for interns who are committed, hard-working, positive, open-minded, reflective and willing to learn. At any one time we expect to host between

two to three interns. Internships are open to everyone. We will seek to find a balance by hosting people from

a diversity of interests, backgrounds and experiences.

Time Commitment:

Generally 1-2 months, to be mutually agreed

Conditions:

Internships are on a voluntary basis, and no payment is provided. In some cases, travel costs may be reimbursed. Shared office space will be provided in Gurgaon.

Application procedure:

Send a cover letter explaining your motivation and a description of what you hope to achieve during your internship at Safetipin. Specify your main skills and interests and relate them to our thematic areas of work. Also specify the requested internship period

/ dates.

Applications must be submitted via email to rashee.mehra@safetipin.com

Deadline for the submission of applications is 20 May 2015.

See More Details...http://goo.gl/4kgmIu

IHE Safety Audit Report

Safetipin and the students of Institute of Home Economics at the University of Delhi undertook a

project to conduct safety audits in the college’s neighborhood. The students of the Department of

Human Development began the semester long initiative by first building a perspective on Gender

and Mobility in the ambit of social justice. The students then had a training session on how to

conduct safety audits using the Safetipin App.

The students were then asked to create routes around their college where safety audits would be

conducted. Several safety audit walks were conducted in the Hauz Khas, Green Park, Siri Fort, IIT

Delhi area. The findings from the audits were then compiled into a report using the analytic engine

of Safetipin. The report was released on the 16th of April 2015 by Dr. Kalpana Viswanath the Co-

founder of Safetipin and Satinder Singh the SHO of Hauz Khas Police Station in the presence of the

Principal, faculty and students of IHE.

The report documents the condition of the infrastructure around the college in detail and makes

several recommendations on how the area can be made safer for students and the larger

community. The exercise of closely inspecting their college campus and their city has allowed the

students to build valuable perspective on gender, mobility and urban planning. The Safetipin team is

excited to work with other colleges and universities to carry out similar programs.

Website : - Family Tracker and Personal Safety App for Women

Google Play Store : - Personal Safety App For Women

I-Tunes Apple Store : -  Personal Safety App For Women

HOW SAFE, IS ALONE?

Before I start with this one, I’d like to apologize for my tardiness. The last few months have been incredibly busy- examinations, mastering the game of table tennis, training my hyperactive dog- made it impossible for me to sit down and think.

The idea for this article in fact, came to me while I was in the process of doing, not thinking. After two months of sleeping under tomes of legal knowledge, research and  Statutory Acts, I decided to celebrate the end of the semester by watching Avengers : Age of Ultron. Scheduling conflicts made it hard for me to go with any of my friends and at 22 going on 23, I refused to take my parents for a superhero flick.

This left me in a bit of a dilemma. Miss the movie or risk going alone? Logically, I’m sure even your brain considered the question, Why don’t you go alone? Which is exactly what my brain volunteered.

The irony is that, the simplest answer, is also the hardest. You see, in a country like India, the idea that a woman can go out alone for leisure, is quite abhorrent. A girl does not simply decide to go visit some famous monument alone. A girl does not go out to dinner, alone. And in a country where rape, street harassment and gender-related violence are common, a girl does not go out for a movie, to sit in a dimly lit movie theater, without a familiar person on either side of her, alone.

If you live in a country where the rate of violence against women is high, then I’m sure my words will resonate with you. One of my guy friends said to me the other day, somewhat defensively, that not all men are rapists. But whether a stranger is a rapist or not, is not what rules our behavior. It is the fear, that a stranger might be a rapist, that rules.

Fear is probably what caused my parents to issue a firm negative when I suggested that I might go alone. It is quite possible that they have spent far more time than I have watching the news about brutal rape cases, incidents of abuse, molestation and public assaults on young women (like the girl who was stripped and groped in public by 30 men, or the teenager who was molested in a bus in front of all the passengers and then thrown off) which has played a huge role in my parents’ mental conditioning. With an only girl child, I can understand that safety would probably be rated #1 on their priority list with fun standing at #10. I wasn’t too sure myself, having been a victim of street harassment and sundry other cases which have made me anxious, unsure and under-confident about being out and alone.

To counter the opposition, I put forward the following arguments to my parents.

a) It was going to be a daytime movie. b) I was a safe driver c) It was pretty close to home. When that didn’t wash, I made the following promises : a) I’d send an “I’m OK” text every few hours. b) I wouldn’t drive through back alleys or dingy places on the way c) I’d stay alert the whole time.

After what felt like a million years, my parents agreed. It had a lot to do with my age, and the fact that my track record is pretty sober (when I say sober I mean I’m a non-drinking, non-smoking, non-sex, non-everything-fun, boring child who’s idea of going wild is usually a good book and some iced tea).

To sum up the evening, it was wild. Yeah, really. I drove by myself. I parked by myself. I got the tickets from the kiosk by myself. I didn’t trip on the escalator. I watched the movie with my purse firmly tucked under my chin, a pepper spray within reach under the zip, and my eyes scanning the hall every few moments (which is hard when you’ve got on 3D glasses). I even peed by myself and bought popcorn by myself. It’s funny how many of us have gotten used to a guy doing all that for us (not the peeing part obviously). It’s either the Dad or the Boyfriend or the Best friend who gallantly accompanies us and brings us snacks and makes us feel safe. It was incredibly liberating to do all of that on my own, and it got me thinking, how many independent women want to do all those things : go for a long run, shop, drive, go to clubs, meditate in parks, sit at conventions, sip a latte without stopping under street lamps when it gets dark, looking over their shoulders, gripping pocket knives, avoiding eye contact, or feeling those pangs of anxiety every time a stranger stares too long or makes a sudden move.

–Jane Austen

Thankfully, there are women who do it better than I. Many of my friends are single, working, independent women who have gotten by impressively well, all on their own. But how? How does one after having heard such frightful tales of harassment, after being cautioned and curbed for most of one’s life, suddenly become self-sufficient? I asked these women the same and we came up with some things you should can keep in mind :

#1 There is absolutely no way of overstating the importance of safety gadgets. A pepper spray, a taser-gun, a pocket knife. An Indian remedy is also chilly powder. Chose your weapon. Always carry one with you.

#2 You can carry your phone and charger with you. A dead phone is a dead ally in emergency situations.

#3 Avoiding eye-contact is crucial. Most women who go out believe that this can help in drawing less attention.

#4 Keep people at home informed about your movements. When traveling by taxi or rickshaw either call someone in front of the driver or pretend to.

#5 Although fear and anxiety are common, use the adrenalin to make yourself more observant and prepared.

#6 When traveling over long distances, knowing that you’re likely to be in isolated areas, wear less revealing outfits. (This might raise a few feminist eyebrows, but most women believe that provocative outfits make them more of a target. If you agree, you can wear clothes that are more on the comfortable side, allow free movement and are less on the stylish side.)

#7 Always note down the registration number of the mode of conveyance you take. Text it to your friends or family. Traveling by public modes of transportation is always preferable.

#8 If your area has the reputation for being unsafe, then prudence would demand that you always go out with someone rather than alone. This might rankle a bit, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

#9 Try and stick to groups of women or families when you’re out in public places. They’re usually loud, chatty and safe.

#10 The city you live in is paramount when it comes to making decisions about independence. Is it a city like Delhi? Where the crime rate is obscenely high? Or is it  a city like Pune? Where it’s mostly safe and the people are civil?

#11 Guts are essential. If you do find yourself in a situation where someone threatens your safety, be loud, belligerent and aggressive. Draw attention to the man. Make a scene. Offenders usually count on fear paralyzing you to the point of silencing you. Never forget to raise your voice.

#12 And finally always be alert. There are moments when you can get lost in what you’re doing, or be deep in thought, or be in a hurry. But these moments cannot happen while you are alone, unaccompanied and unsafe. By keeping your radar tuned to suspicious behavior you can save yourself a great deal of regret.

Perpetrators often point to things like women being alone or being dressed indecently as reasons why they should be raped, harassed or molested. The general idea, is that by having the audacity to assert our independence, we are asking for it.

We are asking for something.

It also starts with an R.

But it’s not RAPE.

It’s RESPECT.

Source...Safetipin.tumblr.com

UBER NAIROBI AND SAFETIPIN PARTNER UP TO PROVIDE SAFER RIDES FOR UBER USERS

Uber Nairobi, has announced it is working together with map-based mobile safety app, SafetiPin, to bring the best in class safety to its users.

Uber announced the partnership earlier today.

“By working together with SafetiPin on this cross-border initiative we hope to provide local communities with the technologies to enable them to travel more safely around their cities,” Kaitlin Freedman, Operations Manager, Uber Nairobi said in a statement to TechCabal.

Uber and SafetiPin collaboration was born in New Delhi, India, and the pilot project rolled out in the same location on February 25. The aim is to cover approximately 20,000 KM of city roads and areas.

“We are delighted to have Uber’s participation and support in key cities around the world. This association will provide us with a much larger data set that would otherwise not have been possible,” said Ashish Basu, Founder of SafetiPin.

SafetiPin collects data of locations based on parameters that together contribute to the perception of safety by measuring actual location conditions in order to generate a safety score for an area. The information is supplemented with comments and photographs from real users and trained safety auditors.

Sources...http://goo.gl/fovMUY

We need more women in public spaces for an equal society

Pink autos, pink taxis, pink signages in the metro — when did pink become the colour of Indian women? Indian women wear a range of vibrant colours. The pink-blue divide is a recent western import.

But the broader question is: Do we need pink autos and taxis? Would this ensure safety of women? Will separate spaces for men and women ensure safety? In fact government schools in Delhi are all segregated. There is no evidence that this leads to greater safety. If boys and girls from a young age are not given the opportunity to interact with each other in a healthy and normal atmosphere, every interaction becomes fraught.

I certainly see the benefit of having more women drive autos, taxis and buses, work as bus conductors, work in petrol pumps, in general be visible in public places. Having more women circulate in public spaces is good because safety audits have shown that having more women in public spaces makes the space safer for everyone. Both men and women find gender-diverse spaces safer.

A park used by men, women and children certainly seems safer than one which is male dominated. So the government should create the conditions whereby more women are able to move freely in public spaces. The Delhi Transport Corporation recently publicised that they have their first woman driver. They must now find ways to not only encourage but make it a priority to have more women as drivers and conductors. While women-only spaces such as the women’s compartment in the Delhi Metro must not be seen as the final solution to the problem of safety, I concede that it is an important strategy in a society where women feel unsafe. It is important at this time to have some separate spaces, but they must be part of a larger basket of solutions that also address gender inequalities and gender violence.

The message that we are giving by only looking at segregation as a solution is that a society without sexual violence is not possible. What we are saying is that it is not possible for women and men to live in spaces which are mutually compatible and safe. We are also condemning all men as predators. In fact many men do not inflict sexual violence on women and we need to figure out how to build a society where this is the primary reality.

What we need to do is to begin to address the roots of inequality in our societies.  We have to do the hard work of creating a more equal and just society and there are no short cuts and easy solutions to achieve that. Along the way, we may need to do many things to improve women’s experience of everyday life, but the goal remains equality.

Kalpana Viswanath works on gender and urban issues and is co-founder of Safetipin
The views expressed by the author are personal..

- See more at: http://goo.gl/JA04Er

It's All in the Connections: Changing the World With Women One Call at a Time

Men and women need to join forces on a mission to connect women to the world. For decades we have heard about gender disparities in every field from economics to education, politics to media. Now we have new evidence of a huge information gender gap hindering the progress of the world's women -- yet another wake-up call that without engaging women, we are unlikely to solve big problems that affect all of us.

In a just-released report by GSMA, an organization that represents global mobile operators -- a report endorsed by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank -- women are being left behind in the global mobile revolution. The report, "Bridging the Gender Gap: mobile access and usage of low- and middle-income countries," finds that 1.7 billion women around the world do not own mobile phones, creating a gender gap of 200 million women. (The report updates earlier findings from five years ago highlighting the disparity in mobile phone ownership between men and women in low- and middle- income countries.)

Think about what technology like a mobile phone enables an individual to do -- from connect with friends and family to access data, information, education, training, and employment. Think about what it would mean if the power of "half the sky," -- 50% of the population -- could be unlocked through access to a mobile phone.

Interestingly, the barriers to women's access to mobile technology laid out in this report, mirror the barriers to women's progress in other sectors: cost of entry to the market, inaccessibility in rural areas, systemic discrimination, technical literacy, basic confidence, and security and harassment.

That last point -- security and harassment -- may surprise people. The notion that many women around the world fear that owning a mobile phone will subject them to harassment--which is so ingrained in their cultures. Ironically, once educated, women discover that sexual harassment can be addressed in many ways including through technology. In India, for example, new apps, such as "FightBack"  and "Safetipin" enable users to send alerts in the case of an emergency, identify risky urban areas, as well as safe places, while also gathering user-generated data on risks and safety that inform security forces, local authorities or community organizations and urban planners. India has a population of 1.3 billion yet, according to the report, 114 million fewer women than men own a mobile phone--a gender gap of 36%. India is just one example of a critical global player whose women are often at a disadvantage from discrimination owing to social norms, sexual harassment, and basic prejudice. For India and other low and middle-income countries, ending sexual harassment is not only right--it makes good business sense.

If women gain access to the global economy, net incomes and new jobs will strengthen the entire international eco system. The bottom line is that connecting women today is essential--not only through technology but through human interaction, the growth of foundations and organizations addressing these issues, public-private partnerships that engage men, and international cooperation in what is a non-zero-sum game wherein progress for some means progress for all. We also need more data collection, like this mobile phone report, to know where the gaps are, and how to close them. According to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, if women had the same access as men to the farming sector, they could increase agricultural yields by 20-30%--enough to lift between 100 and 150 million people out of hunger. But to get there, women need basic connectivity and the information to reach their full potential.

Let's remember that women are key decision-makers in families throughout the world, but they often lack capital, full access to education, skills, training, financial autonomy and basic rights. Unleashing their potential will have a ripple effect around the globe. In the end, human beings need to connect and collaborate to survive and thrive. This is the moment for men to step up to the challenge -- working with women to better the planet -- for the sake of all of us....

Source...www.huffingtonpost.com