Women's safety has become an increasingly highlighted issue over the last few years on account of the growing cases of abuse and harassments against women. Following pie chart represents the share of crimes against women in 2018 and stresses on the need for the safety of women. Though the governments and different organizations around the world are striving hard to ensure women safety but there exists the need to do something else so as to ensure women safety.

While the world is thinking to do something with which they can end up or reduce the crimes against women, the anti-groping devices came up to rescue. Groping is an act of fondling someone especially with a woman for deriving sexual pleasure roughly or clumsily without the women’s consent. This is usually experienced by women in crowded areas or while walking on roads or in public transport. Anti-groping devices are the ones which can be used to protect women against such acts or if not protect at least punish the assailant who is doing such act.

On account of increasing rate of crimes against women and rising awareness among the people regarding women safety, these devices are gaining traction globally. These devices are generally small sized which can be easily carried by women in their handbags or can be worn by them. These do not harm the attacker to a great extent, but they ensure that the victim gets protected or at least gets time to run away from the risky situation or ask for help.

Popular Anti-Groping Devices

1.    Anti-Nuisance Stamps

This is a device designed by a Japanese company Shachihata to address the problems of groping, molestation and sexual harassment in crowded places, especially in the trains in Japan. This is basically a stamp which uses invisible UV ink which allows the victims to mark their assailants with an invisible ink stamp in the shape of a hand. The device contains a black light which is later used to identify the people who have been marked.

2.    Safelet

This is a wearable women safety device which consists of two buttons on the sides that are used to send alerts or messages to a guardian or an emergency contact. The person who receives the alert then can contact the emergency number or police. Additionally, the device also syncs with the user’s mobile phone and starts audio recording of the situation.

3.    Pepper Spray Pistol

It is one among the legally approved women safety devices. It is different from the other pepper sprays since it does not need to be sprayed on the eyes of the offender rather this spray acts as an irritant affecting the eyes and skin of the assailant.

4.    Lipstick Shaped Flashlight

This is a 5 inches long women safety device that resembles lipstick which can be secretly kept and is easy to handle and carry. It consists of rechargeable batteries and captures 180 lumen flashlights. 

5.    Safety Torches

This is one such women personal protection device that is a must carry essential in a women’s bag. It is a rechargeable torch which is equipped with a shock effect also. It consists of LED flashlights which can shock the groper badly.

6.    Safety Rod

These are the most popular devices that can be used for both offence and defence applications. These devices are basically used to provide protection against gropers or attackers. They deliver shock along with massive pain to the offender. 

7.    Smart Pendant

This pendant is very much different from the normal pendant since it consists of a small circular device known as Safer. Whenever a woman feels unsafe or find herself stuck in a risky situation, she can just press the safer button attached to the pendant and it will send alerts to her emergency contacts. The device is also equipped with a GPS system and hence the exact location of the women in danger can also be shared with her family or emergency contacts. 

8.    Revolar

This is one of the most popular women safety devices. It is an oval shaped device which resembles a small garage clicker and can easily be kept inside the jeans pocket or inside a sports bra. When clicked twice the device sends a yellow message to the emergency contact of the women in danger stating that she is not safe along with her current GPS location. It also sends a red message when pressed thrice.

9.    Sound Grenade

This is a type of personal safety alarm which weighs around 20 grams and produces a 120 Db loud siren. This is a non-lethal product which provides protection against groping, rapes, mugging, thefts, or any other risky situation. This device sends an alarm to anyone within the range of 100 meters to the victim.

10.  ACT

This is a watch launched by Sonata. It has a mobile application which can be downloaded in the smartphones of the users. Using Bluetooth, the watch works with the phone and sends alerts to the emergency contacts of the user. This alert message will also include the user’s location. 

11.  SHE (Society Harnessing Equipment)

This is basically a garment consisting of an installed electronic device. The garment consists of an electric circuit which generates a current of about 38,000kV. It delivers an electric shock to the groper causing severe burns while it protects the victim from the electricity. The effect of the device is such that it helps the victim to run away easily after the offender gets a shock.

12.  ILA Systems

This consist of a system of alarms. It works by giving a potential shock to the offender thereby safeguarding the victim from any kind of risky situation. It also disorients the potential attacker. 

13.  Smart Belt

Similar to any ordinary belt in appearance these belts consist of an Arduino board, pressure sensors and an alarm. The device gets automatically activated whenever the pressure sensors cross the threshold. The siren unit also gets activated asking for help.

14.  Electric Gloves

This is basically a shock providing glove which generates an output voltage of about 5000 Volts for few seconds. This current does not harm the culprit and gives an opportunity to the victim to run away from the situation. 

15.  Jivi 2010

This is a feature of Jivi mobile phones which have a SOS button in them. During emergency situation, the user just needs to long press the SOS button and the phone starts calling 5 pre-stored numbers one after the other. In case any of these 5 numbers is busy a message is sent to the number. Later, the phone automatically starts dialling other numbers from the list.

Popular Anti-Groping/ Women Safety Apps & Systems

The number of smartphone users is increasing at a robust rate owing to the improving lifestyle of the population where having a smartphone is not just a necessity but has become a norm. Additionally, affordable price of the smartphones, increasing customer spending on media & entertainment, among others are some other factors which are fueling global smartphones market. As a result of this, app developers are using this as an opportunity to reach out to the people. Moreover, there are many women safety apps that are available in the smartphones, which can be used to control the rate of crime against women. Some of the popular anti-groping or women safety apps are described in the following section.

1.    Anti-Groping Appli 

This app was designed and developed in 2005 by the famous game developer Takahashi with the aim to stop the wandering hands in congested Japanese trains. With the increasing number of crimes against women, this app has suddenly climbed up the popularity ratings and is commonly used by the women in the country. This app flashes threatening messages such as Did you just grope me.? Groping is a crime? Shall we head to the police.?, among others on the phone screen of the victim to show to the offender. A warning chime also accompanies these messages. This app is mostly used by those women who just want to scare away the perverts without attracting attention.

2.    VithU App

This is an emergency app which at the click of the power button of the user’s smartphone starts sending alerts and messages to the user’s emergency contacts stating that the user is in danger and needs help. The updated location of the victim or user is also sent along the alerts to the emergency contacts. Every two minutes the updated location is sent. The app also sends tips and updates regarding any kind of crime scene and how to deal with it.

3.    Watch Over Me

This is an app which converts the user’s mobile phone into a safety device. This app monitors the user’s journey and sends alerts to the emergency contacts or guardians stating that the user has not reached the destination within the stipulated time where they were supposed to reach. In case of any kind of attack or risky situation, the user just needs to shake her phone and an alarm starts ringing.

Recent Developments

Presently, the department of Electronics and Communication Engineering of an engineering college in Karnataka, India is developing an IoT based women safety device. This device will be cost-effective and will provide end-to-end women safety solution. Along with IoT this device will use combined hardware technology like Raspberry pi and Nodemcu. Whenever, the women using this device will be in danger, the device will give an electric shock to the offender and activate the gadget. When triggered, the gadget will get connected to Twilio (Cloud) and the device will make an alert call to the user’s emergency contact. Additionally, it will capture the image of the culprit and also send the woman’s location to her emergency contact.

Another device, Suraksha is being designed in India. This device is simple and easy to carry, designed especially to ensure women safety. The device will function by sending the live location and alert messages to the user’s emergency contacts. Presently, this work is under process and the developers are working on embedding this device in jewelleries, mobile phones or any other common objects used by women.

Conclusion

Smart safety devices or anti-groping devices are becoming popular globally to prevent the number of crimes against women. There are many companies and manufacturers around the globe who are developing new devices every day for ensuring women safety. Some of the key players established in the women safety devices are Shachihata Inc., Takahashi Co. Ltd., Leaf Innovation Pvt Ltd, BBKP Techlo Solution, Mace India, among others.

According to Techsci Research, United States Smart Personal Safety & Security Devices Market By Type (Safety, Security), By Component (Hardware, Software), By End User (BFSI, Healthcare, Defence, Telecommunications, Others), By Region, By Company, Forecast & Opportunities, 2024, the United States smart personal safety & security devices market is expected to grow at a formidable rate during the forecast period. Safety devices track the user location by sending alerts for emergency assistance in the form of text or alarm. These devices are generally available in the form of smart watch, key rings, rings, bracelets, among others, and demand for such devices is expected to grow in the United States.