The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs to establish an Integrated Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) platform. This is an emergency response system for women and other vulnerable groups who may face violence.

The geographical information system (GIS) based call taking and geographical positioning system (GPS) based police vehicle dispatch system will be able to respond to distress calls and ensure speedy assistance to women. Distress/emergency alarms generated by panic buttons/landlines/mobiles through individual devices pioneered by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) or mobile phone applications would be tracked and emergency response (ER) units will be dispatched to attend the call.

This project would obtain funding from the Nirbhaya Fund. The project involves a total expenditure of Rs. 321.69 crore which includes an implementation cost (one time) of Rs. 204.25 crore, recurring expenditure (operational cost for 5 years) of Rs. 102.12 crore and expenses for the central monitoring and evaluation project management unit of approx Rs. 15.32 crore.

The key objectives and features of the initiative are:

• Providing 24 hours and 7 days (24 x 7) helpline service to women in distress and an efficient and effective response system to attend to their calls as well as for alarms related to other emergency services such as medical and disaster (fire, etc.) by other responders in an integrated manner.
• Handling of emergency situations of children and other vulnerable sections of society.
• Speedy assistance for helpless women/children of a defined area, who face any form of violence, such as eve teasing, dowry demands, sexual assault, molestation or any other abuse either in public or at home.
• Integration with existing Dial 100 system for seamless operation and coordination between both systems.
• The proposed system would also be integrated with Crime and Criminal Tracking and Networking System (CCTNS), State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), etc. and follow the DIT guidelines for scalability, interoperability, etc.
• The project would demonstrate the capabilities of the NG911 network standards for dynamically identifying caller location, exchanging data between emergency call and dispatching centres and Police Dial 100 system, fire, health and disaster management command centres.

The project involves setting up of city-wise high-tech Control Rooms to cover 114 cities and districts in different States and Union Territories of India, as identified by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which includes 71 cities having a population of more than a million or which are headquarters of the State/UT as well as headquarters of 41 highly crime-prone districts. The 71 cities would cover a population of over 231.23 million and the 43 districts would cover a population of 160.27 million, that is a total coverage of 32.6 per cent of the country.

The project will be implemented in stages over a period of nine months followed by an operations and maintenance period of five years. This system can subsequently be migrated to a single central Emergency Response number in the future.