A mobile application for Women's Safety: WoSApp

The safety of women is a concern of increasing urgency in India and other countries. The primary issue in the handling of these cases by the police lies in constraints preventing them from responding quickly to calls of distress. These constraints include not knowing the location of the crime, and not knowing the crime is occurring at all: at the victim's end, reaching the police assuredly and discreetly is a challenge. To aid in the removal of these constraints, this paper introduces a mobile application called WoSApp (Women's Safety App) that provides women with a reliable way to place an emergency call to the police. The user can easily and discreetly trigger the calling function by shaking her phone, or by explicitly interacting with the user interface of the application via a simple press of a PANIC button on the screen. A message containing the geographical location of the user, as well as contact details of a pre-selected list of emergency contacts, is immediately sent to the police. This paper describes the application, its development, and its technical implementation.