Personal safety of women, and others, inspired Manik Mehta, Chirag Kapil, Ayush Banka and Avinash Bansal, electronics engineering students at Delhi College of Engineering, to develop wearable safety device, 'SAFER', as part of their college project in 2014. The device has an in-built panic button that can be used to send emergency alerts in case of distress. Joined by a friend of Chirag and an IIT JEE alumni, Paras Batra, the all-boys group decided to take the project a step further and, in 2015, launched Leaf Wearables, a start-up that designs and develops technology-driven wearable alert systems that can be embedded in trendy jewellery for women.
The SAFER smart jewellery is actually a safety device that looks like a pendant that can be worn around the neck. You can even remove the device from the pendant and use it in a key chain. It would still work as the device is embedded in the heart of the pendant. In case of an emergency, the person wearing it just has to double click the device attached to the jewellery to trigger the app and send out an alert to her guardians. Unlike most other SOS devices, SAFER comes with an advantage; it works even without an internet connection. The app works on the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the wearer's phone to track and locate users.
“The idea was to create something that could have a large scale impact on women safety, especially after the 2012 Nirbhaya case. Such incidents kept reoccurring and nothing had changed. It became our prime motivation to continue (the project) to ensure safety for women. We focused on ways to embed technology into whatever you wear for your personal safety, different from violent defence mechanisms like knives and pepper sprays that can eventually be used against you,” says Chirag, co-founder, Leaf Wearables.
Besides, the stories they heard from their women friends and sisters told them how women found it difficult to deal with cases of eve teasing that are rampant on roads and other public places. “I remember Chirag telling me about his younger sister who faced eve-teasing at her college campus. She often mentioned the goons who tease her. One of her friends had also narrated a similar tale about how boys on bikes would tease her on the road outside her college. They often asked us if we could help in some way. That is when we thought of ways we could do something about it and decided to make use of technology to ensure safety of women, ” says Paras, director, sales and marketing, Leaf Wearables.
Though they started off with developing devices focused on women safety, it is not about just empowering women, they insist. Unsafe public spaces are not just a women's problem. It is a problem for all. If a woman can be attacked in a public place, then anyone can be attacked. "The way I see it, its about humanity working for humanity. Men form almost the half of it. If men do not stand up for women and protect them against the crimes, so half of the humanity will go against the problem. It has got nothing to do with so called notion that men are stronger than women and they can put up a bigger fight against women crimes. It's just that humanity working for a problem to get solved. So why should one sex not be a part of it or the other should only be a part of it. It should be a collective thing," says Manik.
On being asked about the new wave of feminism in India and the reaction of most men to it, Paras says, “There is lack of awareness among people in the society. People tend to think feminism as something that puts women ahead of men or gives them advantages. However, according to me, feminism is about standing for equality. This needs to be communicated well amongst our male peers, friends and other men. Educating people will tackle this problem and will lend us a more sustainable solution."
Strangely, for a team that has such strong roots in feminism and gender equality, Leaf Wearables continues to be an all-men initiative at the core. Paras says that being an all-men team was not planned and it just happened as they were already friends in college. "We did not plan to have only men in the group. It's our friendship and our common objective of 'humanity working for humanity' that brought us together,” he says.
Next in product pipeline is a smartwatch, embedded with SAFER device, for children. The child only has to wear the watch and parents could track the exact location of the child at any point of time without even pairing it with their smartphones. "We have sold more than 9, 000 SAFER pendants designed for women. Last year, we realised that many parents are trying to get hold of similar technology as SAFER for their children. The USP of the smartwatch is that it has its own GPS and a SIM card that works independently. Using the watch both parents and children would be able speak to each other any time they want," says Paras.
