Delhi Police’s Himmat app for women safety finds few takers months after launch, relaunch
According to the Delhi Police, the app has 40,677 registered users and is downloaded by 1,06,581 people. Availability of a number of similar apps is one of the major reasons why this application has failed to catch up .
A month ago, Delhi Police launched the trial run of Quick Reaction (QR) codes in 10 kaali-peeli taxis at Delhi airport, which the passengers can scan using the city police’s women safety Himmat app to inform police about their journey.
Although 94 of the 100 passengers who used the QR code rated the initiative between excellent and average, the project may not achieve its objective because the Himmat app still has few takers and has failed to catch up despite its relaunch in April.
According to the Delhi Police, the app has 40,677 registered users and is downloaded by 1,06,581 people. In January 2015, when it was launched by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, it got 68,318 downloads and 19,474 registered users. In 2016, another 9,799 new users came on board.
To encourage more people to download Himmat, the Police decided to relaunch it in April this year, unveiling new features to make it more user friendly. The app that was earlier launched in English and only for Android-based phones was now made available in Hindi as well and on both Android and iOS platforms.
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After its relaunch, 11,404 new users registered for it.
On the reasons behind the fewer downloads and usage of the application, Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, said, “Availability of a number of similar women safety mobile applications, some of them launched much before the Himmat app, is one of the major reasons why this application has failed to catch up. The lack of aggressive publicity and promotions in colleges, schools and places frequented by women is another reason.” Safetipin runs a mobile application that collects information for safety audits.
Vishwanath, however, said that women in Delhi using smart phones should download and register themselves with the Himmat application because unlike other private women safety applications, it is the official application of the Delhi Police, which can be held accountable for any crime against women in the city.
Asked what new measures the city police are talking to get the expected response from public, Delhi Police chief spokesperson Dependra Pathak said, “Our technical team is trying to rectify the glitches the application has. We will soon come up with an improved and advanced version of the app for seamless functioning. We will promote it by interacting with communities at large besides using advertisements.”
