India’s Ministry of Communications and Technology has announced that starting in 2017 all mobile phones sold across the country must include a panic button.

In 2014, India's National Crime Records Bureau recorded 337,922 crimes against women, meaning there were more than 900 crimes days, or around one every two minutes. This is an attempt to promote women’s safety.

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The new rules come on the heels of a several extremely high-profile instances of violence against women in India. In 2012, a 23-year-old woman died after she was gang-raped in Delhi, and an Uber driver was found guilty after raping a female passenger in 2015.

For regular mobile phones, holding down the five or nine button on the keypad would activate the emergency call. For smartphones, users would be required pressing the power button three times. In addition to the panic button feature, all mobile phones must also include GPS capabilities after January 2018.

“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women,” said India’s communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Indian government plan received approval from mobile phone manufacturers in December of 2015, and the new rules will target all manufacturers, including giants Apple and Samsung. India is among the fastest-growing smartphone markets and has about one billion mobile phone users. It means that there should be a high demand for technology-based security assistance in a nation with an average of four rapes an hour and one of the world’s lowest police-to-citizen ratios.

Currently, there are already a number of apps available in India with same function. The country has no centralized 911-type service for emergency calls, though a single, nationwide emergency response number, 112, will be introduced in the next few months.

TagsMobile Phones, India, mobile panic button, India women safety, women safety