Buses install panic buttons for women in India

As previously announced by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on May 25, the mandatory installation of emergency panic buttons, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and GPS-enabled tracking devices on public transport buses in India was passed into law on Thursday, June 2.

According to The Indian Express, the Depot Chief Manager's phone at Jaipur Control Room and the nearest police control room will be alerted with the bus' location and live video feed once the panic button is pressed. The government's women's helpline number is also connected to the panic button. The control room can also use the GPS device in cases when a bus deviates from a scheduled route, while the CCTV footages will be stored for a maximum of five years.

Al Jazeera cited that in 2012, India's official record of public and private buses was already an estimated 1,676,500. New buses have already been equipped with the emergency devices in the initial phase. The next phase will be for the old vehicles.

Auto rickshaws have also been installed with GPS trackers, as reported by CNN. Moreover, the government has previously mandated that all mobile phones in 2017 should come with panic buttons and then a GPS device the following year.

During an event at Bikaner House in New Delhi, Gadkari told reporters that the bill on buses came about "to ensure safety of women after the unfortunate Nirbhaya incident."

Gadkari was referring to the 2012 case that triggered worldwide furor and nationwide protests after a 23-year-old medical student, gang-raped by six men at the back seat of a bus, died of injuries.

However, Sehjo Singh of the anti-poverty group ActionAid India believes that more than the new laws, what's needed is the government's follow-up action.

"If I press the panic button, what happens after? This is very important," Singh told Al Jazeera.

General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, Annie Raja, shares the same opinion and said that the implementation to use these laws as protection for women is "not happening."

"India is a country with patriarchal social values and thinking," Raja stated. "So, we don't consider women as equal citizens."

The National Crime Records Bureau recorded 32,077 cases of rape in 2015 or almost one incident per hour.