Earlier this week, a young girl committed suicide after being violated. In her grim suicide note, she has named the culprit, and bade goodbye to her family by saying that they will not live with respect if she lives with such dishonour. 
Sadly, this is the nightmarish reality of our country. Every day 17 rape incidents occur, and only 15 per cent of the rape cases are reported. So, the actual number is unimaginably high, which exposes the dark underbelly of our faltering social structure.
With such appalling conditions in place, a determined young software developer, Jalal Mirza of Bangladesh developed the 'Bachao' app, an app to prevent rape incidents by alerting nearby people via smartphones. This writer talked to Jalal, the founder of the 'Bachao Foundation' about his journey and his aspirations to make the country a safer place for millions of women.
Inspiration for developing the app: The motivation to create the app stemmed from a personal tragedy when his sister was violated 14 years ago. On her deathbed, his mother requested him to do something as a software engineer to save girls from being a victim of such atrocity. Jalal Mirza turned his grief into determination and toiled heart and soul to develop this app which will save many more women of our country from sharing such tragic fate. The app aims to halve rapes in Bangladesh.
"It is a war against rape," said Jalal Mirza, "We divide Bangladesh into 64 districts, and we work in each village, each union, each sub-district and each district."
How Bachao app works: Bachao uses the global positioning system or GPS technology. With one touch, it connects a woman in trouble to nearby volunteers, her family, friends or police. A woman selects a list of three highly trustworthy family members or friends whose contact numbers are on the emergency list, and the app sends a distress signal to them once she presses a button. The app also sends a rape alert to every volunteer within a 500-metre radius. The app sends the live location of the help seeker and allows text or audio communication among users.
After installing the app from the Google Play Store, a user has to select their emergency contacts such as family or friends and the setup is complete. If a woman feels threatened, she can instantly press the red button named 'rape alert'. All nearby volunteers will be alerted and they will contact the woman either by message or call to help. She, too, can contact them for help.
Once the woman feels safe, she has to press the green 'Safe Now' button. If the woman does not turn off the signal within twenty minutes, her location will be sent to the local police station. A 'Bachao' helpline is also open to everyone for calls.
Operations of Bachao Life Foundation: The Bachao Life Foundation works closely with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, and the Ministry of Social Welfare. Besides, it has a number of partners like BRAC, IDLC, Bangladesh Mohila Parishad, Ain o Salish Kendra, Manusher Jonno and Jaago Foundation, Ibn Sina Hospital etc. Various local NGOs assist the foundation to raise the number of volunteers. The foundation is also working with the garment exporters' lobby BGMEA to ensure the organisation makes it compulsory for apparel factories to encourage their female workers to download and use the app.
At present, the Bachao Life Foundation has 16,000 volunteers, collectively known as the 'Bachao Brigade'. Some of the districts in its operational zone include Dhaka, Satkhira, Lakshmipur, Chandpur, Chattogram, Cumilla, Pabna. At Dhaka metropolitan area, Mirpur, Sutrapur, Islampur, Nawabpur and Kalsi are some of the thanas in its network.
Bachao Life Foundation has identified around 200 unions with the most rape incidents and declared them as the Red Zone unions. The Red Zones will be brought under the network of Bachao Brigade, and the foundation will focus to lower the rape down at these Red Zones. The high-frequency areas will be taken care of first.
"We are talking with Action Aid as well to start an on-field awareness-raising campaign and women empowerment to reduce the number of rapes," Jalal Mirza said. "We have also applied to the BTLC (Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited) to provide us with a phone number for the helpline and sending text messages. From July, SMS based interfaces will be introduced for rural areas where internet connectivity is quite poor," he continued.
How effective the app is: "The app is meant to be a deterrent to the rape incidents," Jalal Mirza replied when asked about the effectiveness of the app. They are trying to protect women with the help of technology. There had already been 60 incidents where the victims sought help and rapes were prevented. But, in five cases, those who sought help could not be found in the system. It is likely that their phone was taken or disconnected. The foundation is working relentlessly to improve the app to prevent all rapes.
"We are storing data for 12 months, then we will provide the data to the law enforcement agencies and the policymakers so that they may create a better framework for rape prevention. So our efforts will create an indirect effect on policy making and law enforcement."
Criminal profiling and community surveillance: In modern countries, criminal profiling is widely used to counter sexual offences. Psychologists and criminologists try to find out the reasons and the environment that create a sex offender or a rapist. But in our country, there is no such endeavour. So Jalal Mirza has decided to expand his initiative to criminal profiling as well.
"I am collaborating with the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and the Department of Psychology to build a database for rapist profiling. In that way, we can analyse how and why rape is committed. Besides, we can pinpoint more precise locations so that the most dangerous spots of a locality can be found. Thus, we can make sure those locations are safe and culprits are caught."
Hope for the future: Jalal Mirza pleaded to the youth to join the Bachao Brigade, saying, "It takes no money, no skill or no proficiency. All you need is resolve and determination. With your support, we will prevent rape and protect the women of our country. Such rape culture cannot be tolerated anymore. "
Bachao Life Foundation has been relentless in its pursuit of preventing rape and protecting the women of Bangladesh with its limited resources and unlimited willpower and grit. Such initiatives are needed more so that no more innocent women of our country fall victim to such monstrosity anymore.
The writer is a third-year Economics student at the University of Dhaka. [email protected]
- Saturday, 28 December 2024 |
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