Women travelling in WR get extra ‘Eye’ for security

Mumbai: Western Railway (WR), along with Railway Police Force (RPF), on Saturday will launch a pilot application (app) for women commuters. Named “Eye Watch”, the app can be downloaded with six numbers of loved ones to be fed in. The way the app works is that if a woman on a train feels threatened, she can click the SOS button and an audio and video and the location of the woman will be sent to the control room and the concerned emergency numbers.

For now, the app can be seen only between Churchgate and Borivali but it is considered a big step towards the safety and security of women on Mumbai locals, especially women travelling by themselves at odd hours. Announcing the launch, chief security commissioner, Uday Shukla, said, "The application will go live from Saturday on WR and will be provided between Churchgate and Dadar initially. If successful, it will go live for the entire suburban section after we test it out for a month.”

The app can be downloaded via play store, and will require the woman in question to feed in six emergency contacts, to whom the audio, video, and location will be sent apart from RPF control room located at Mumbai Central.

The app has been developed in partnership with a private company called Indian Eye Security. Mr Shukla said, "We will have around six to seven teams stationed in the control room for as long as local trains are running.”

In 2015, molestation of an American woman and a nurse on WR made headlines. WR has recently launched other security measures such as fitting of CCTV cameras in 22 women’s compartments in the past three months.