Bengaluru: Pink Samaritan, a social transformation campaign, was launched in the city on Wednesday to help women in danger through a mobile app. Supported by Facebook and Namma Bengaluru Foundation, the initiative aims to build a strong community of people, using technology as a platform, to be there for women.
To curb crimes against women, the Pink Samaritan programme, is using the “back to basics” way of protecting women with the power of a strong community. The initiative has called out men and women to register themselves as the Pink Samaritans on the app.
The app currently has features that allow women to find the nearest police stations, hospitals and pharmacies, while also allowing them to trigger a request in case of eventualities. The app sends SOS to Pink Samaritans and helps them find women in danger using GPS.
On the sidelines of the event, the head of economic growth initiatives of Facebook, Ritesh Mehta, said Facebook will bring the initiative to as many people as possible. “It is getting the citizens involved. It’s a great opportunity for Facebook to continue to create awareness about being safe online and offline as well,” he said.
A panel discussion, ‘Going back to basics’, was held on women safety. The panel included Sridhar Pabbisetty of Namma Bengaluru Foundation, Hema Ravichander, a strategic HR adviser, Meena Ganesh, a venture capitalist, Lakshmi Partury, CEO of INK, Ritesh Mehta of Facebook, former ACP Ashok Kumar and Sahana Das of Mount Carmel College.
