New Delhi, April 22: While the political class
of the country is facing an uphill task to
improve the women's safety in the wake of
the continuous instances of rape, some
young minds in the country have already
made a substantive contribution to deal with
the menace.
Manisha Mohan, a 20-year-old engineering
student at SRM University in Chennai, along
with two of her varsity colleagues, Niladri
Basu and Rimpi Tripathy, have designed an
anti-rape lingerie following the brutal
gangrape and assault of a 23-year-old
student in New Delhi in December last year
to ward off sexual offenders.
It took Mohan and her team three months to
develop the garment, which they call Society
Harnessing Equipment (SHE). Mohan said
she was left disgusted by the rape culture in
the country and her creation is a sort of
retaliation against the social menace.
How does the anti-rape lingerie work?
According to a report , he lingerie is a high-
tech piece of cloth which is capable of
detecting an advancing aggressor and
deliver massive electric shocks. The
garment will also be able to contact the
local police station and the girl's family to
inform them that she was in trouble. The
aggressor will also be photographed by the
inbuilt camera.
Questions, however, have been raised as to
how the anti-rape lingerie can differentiate
between an aggressor and a loved one and
how could the potential victim ensure that
she herself is not electrocuted. Can such an
apparently complicated garment be made
available for the masses?
The garment, which is a plain white
nightgown lined with a polymer can be worn
with a dress, pants or skirt. According to the
report, studies have shown that an
aggressor often tries to reach for the
victim's bosom and hence the dress's bra-
area has been fitted with censors capable of
detecting pinching and squeezing. Mohan
and her team said once the censor is
activated, the garment will send out a very
strong electric shock which will knock out
the aggressor. But the wearer won't feel any
shock since the side of the garment which
touches the skin is left insulated.
Moreover, there is an electric switch
attached to the waist of the cloth and that
can be switched on whenever the wearer
knows that there could be a potential
danger, like while going out late at night.
The switch, when on, will activate the shock
mechanism. At other times, the switch can
be kept in "off" mode.
The garment is also provided with a GPS
device which can be programmed in a way
to send messages to the near and dear ones
at times of crisis by the girl or woman
wearing it. It will also send an alert to the
nearest police station.
The creators of the garment are still busy
giving it the final touches to get it ready for
sale. Reports said they are yet to find if the
material can be washed in machine.
Questions are still on whether the garment
can be sold at cheaper rates, but Mohan
and her team are hopeful that it could be
reached to the women residing in villages.
The team said it aimed to make the world a
safer place without gaining any profit.
In 2004, two students of the National
Institute of Fashion Technology had
prepared a special jacket to curb crimes
against women and it is likely to hit the
market this year. That product also operates
on a similar shock mechanism to ward off
the sexual predators, it was learnt.
OneIndia News
Story first published: Tuesday, April 23,
2013, 16:24 [IST]