By Deepika Sarma
When you find yourself in times of trouble and Mother Mary is otherwise occupied, how do you escape an attacker or potential rapist?
In phoren, there are inventions aplenty which promise you won’t get attacked or raped. Choose from pink ‘fashion’ pepper spray bracelets, stun guns cunningly disguised as lipstick, pink attack alarms, pink tasers disguised as tampons, ‘killer tampons’, female condoms that leave barbs in a rapist’s penis and a skirt that folds out to camouflage the wearer as a Coca-Cola vending machine.
Closer home, we’ve got some gadgets of our own, a few inspired in the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape last December. Here’s a look at some inventions meant to harness technology in service of womankind.
Cobra pepper spray
That trusty can of liquid fire sold at your local pharmacy is available easily. Bangalore’s Cobra pepper spray claims to have a spraying distance of 12 feet and to be “enough to handle a small mob of 10-12.” Hard to believe, unless they queue politely for their turn to be sprayed in the face.
If pepper spray seems old school to you, here’s a worryingly alarmist take on the burning need for it in your life from Pepper the Pigs, which strongly advocates buying pepper spray as a stop-gap measure for preventing rape: “Trust us, we are embarrassed to propose this as a solution.” That makes two of us.
And if you wonder if it’s an effective deterrent for an attacker, here’s an entirely different approach to self-defense from a company that sells self-defence:
“Possibly one of the best ways to deploy pepper spray when confronted by an assailant may be to spray yourself with the chemical instead of the assailant. If the assailant attacks you, more than likely, he will not stick around to rape you. However, if he is an anger retaliatory rapist, he may continue to violate you under such conditions.”
A lose-lose situation if there ever was one!
Phone apps
Channel V recently jumped onto the women’s safety bandwagon to promote its TV show ‘Gumrah’, with an app of its own – VithU. Once you activate it, it sends an alert to a friend or guardian, and claims to send details of your location and update it every 2 minutes. As a happy bonus, there’s an alert option for Gumrah, a crime series, which reminds you when the show will be aired.
A number of mobile phone apps in India, such as Nirbhaya – developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Mumbai – act as SOS devices that send out distress signals and location details to numbers listed as emergency contacts. Damini sends location details and video clips to numbers listed.
In addition, there are apps such as Hollaback, which helps document and share incidents of street harassment worldwide (currently only available in four Indian cities: Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi and Pathankot). Or Scream Alarm, which plays the sound of a woman screaming to raise an alarm during an emergency. Or Safetipin. Or iFollow. Or Circle of 6. There’s no dearth to choose from.
Suraksha
Created (like many of the other desi products on this list) in the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape in 2012, Suraksha is a digital device that can be used to make distress calls. Unlike most other SOS devices that rely on cellphone networks, Suraksha, which is past its prototype stage, can work even in remote areas, using satellite communication and radio frequency to send out distress signals to the nearest police control room. Like other devices in the same vein, it can also send out SMSes with the bearer’s location coordinates.
SHE (no relation to H. Rider Haggard)
Spurred by a “hatred of molesters and eve-teasers,” students at Chennai’s SRM University came up with Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE), lingerie fitted with GPS and a sensor-enabled device that can administer shocks to an attacker. When the device is on, pressure activates sensors in the bra region that send out a powerful electric shock while ensuring that the wearer’s skin is insulated.
Another item of clothing using a similar concept is the Anti-molestation jacket designed by two NIFT students, with embedded metalwork that shock molesters. Noopur Anand, professor at NIFT who guided them, told NDTV: “I want to explore a porcupine jacket, one whose bristles will stand up and ward off a molester. I also have plans on my mind to explore the concept of smell and sound. Something which can emit a shrill noise or one that can give off a pungent odour that can deter assault. The puzzle, though is to protect the wearer.”
While there’s no harm in being prepared, believing that these inventions will stop groping or rape is like believing in the power of the tragicomic Pappu Naada, the magical pajama drawstring that cannot be cut or undone. Here’s a spoof of the original ad:
(It has a more sophisticated Western version, a modern avatar of the medieval chastity belt, more myth than fact)
As always, technology has its failings. But if you should find yourself experiencing ‘technical difficulty’ in an emergency, never fear. Here are some pearls of wisdom from Anurag Kashyap, who in his latest offering shows that he thinks it’s possible for a woman to beat up her attackers simply by believing in herself: “Taakat shareer main nahi, tumhare man main hai (Strength isn’t in your body, it’s in your mind)” says a female self-defense instructor trying to steel a group of terrified women for confrontation with their tormentors. “Agar tumne man bana liya, toh koi kuch nahi kar sakta” (If you make up your mind, then no one can do anything [to you]).
He has since apologized for the film’s ending among the readers’ comments on an article in Business Standard: “I apologise if it came across like that. It wasn’t the intention. But it does come across like that. And I should have thought more.”
Well, thanks, but don’t worry – we’ve got Sridevi to save us from attack: