Delhi Police’s women safety Himmat app, which had few takers, now in Hindi
Delhi Police has relaunched its women safety Himmat app with new features after the earlier version failed to catch up.
To encourage more people to download Himmat, its safety mobile application for women, the Delhi Police on Thursday unveiled new features to make it more user friendly.
The app that was earlier launched in English will be available in Hindi as well and on both Android and iOS platforms.
“Earlier the registration process for the application was a little cumbersome because of which the users were probably getting discouraged to register. Now we have revamped the entire app to encourage more people to use it,” special commissioner of police Dependra Pathak said on Thursday.
The changes were made after the app failed to get the expected response. Since its launch in January 2015, only 90,000 people have downloaded Himmat and approximately 31,000 people are registered users.
Himmat was created for the safety of women who travel alone in and around Delhi, which has one of the rates of crime against women in the country. Himmat can be downloaded free of cost from an app store or the Delhi Police website.
It allows the user to alert police, friends and family in a distress situation.
“We had asked for feedback and we realised that when launched in Hindi, the application will become more user friendly and will have a wider mass appeal,” Pathak said.
Also, a woman had to go through an extensive verification process that required her to share details such as their name, address, occupation, contact details and travel route to download the application, the procedure has now been dropped.
“Now, a person need not answer a set of questions before starting to use the application,” Pathak said.
Police are also looking to update the website of special police unit for women and children (SPUWAC). The website will be linked to all main police websites, which would make it easy for users to seek information on other departments, an officer said.