Now, a lingerie equipped with GPS to fight sexual crimes

Chennai: Three automobile engineers from Chennai have come out with what they claim can check sexual offences in India - a lingerie laced with modules of GPS and capable of sending alerts to the girl's parents and police. "The lingerie, laced with modules of global positioning system (GPS), global system for mobile communications (GSM) and also pressure sensors, is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 kV as well as alerts to the girl's parents and police," says Manisha Mohan, co-developer of the innovative product named Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE).

"The shocks can be emitted up to 82 times," she said, adding it's an apt device which could get women "freedom from situations faced in bus, public places", where at times they are reluctant to walk down to lawmakers for help. "A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules would send a SMS on emergency number 100, as well as to parents of the girl," she describes the functioning process.

Mohan, an engineering student of Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University in Chennai, along with her two colleagues Rimpi Tripathi and Neeladri Basu Pal, developed the prototype of "SHE" and are busy fine-tuning the product for commercial roll out in April.

The innovative design bagged an award at the Gandhian Young Technology Award-2013 event organised at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). "We have got a lot of joint venture offer, but nothing has been worked out yet," Mohan said.

"I have approached a friend of mine in National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) to help me find the right kind of fabric for the product so that it can be a washable one," she says. On being asked what inspired them to design such a product, Mohan says, "After the Delhi gangrape incident, and the rape of a Bangalore BPO worker, I felt women are being tortured in the name of safety. Henceforth, we decided to come up with something innovative which helps women protect themselves besides not being abandoned in the name of safety."