Manisha Mohan is one smart young woman.
A student of engineering at India’s SMR University of Chennai is the brains behind the soon to be released “anti-rape underwear”, which she developed with fellow students Rimpi Tripathi and Neeladri Basu Pal.
The slip like lingerie, which they are still looking for the right fabric to create on a commercial level, is capable of shocking assailant and alerting police and parents of the danger to the female wearing the garments as soon as the attack starts.
Pressure sensors stun the attacker with volts of 3,800 kV, the same voltage of some motors on 4×4 engines, while the GPS system in the undies give the exact location of the could be victim to police and parents. There is also a text messaging type of device like in cell phones, GMS, which sends the emergency call out to authorities as well.
“A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules would send an SMS on emergency number 100, as well as to the parents of the girl.” Mohan told the Indian Times in an interview.
Inspired by the recent increase in molestations and rapes in her home country of India, a problem that has been around for decades but increasing in severity of late, the “anti-rape underwear” which is called Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE) will be on sale in India this month. The invention has also gotten the inventors nominated for the Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award 2013.
It’s a sad state of societal affairs when we think this modern day type of chastity belt must be used but the statistic in India are overwhelming. According the BBC as reported by the Huffington Post, a woman is raped in Delhi every 14 hours. Official documents show only one person was convicted of rape in all of 2012. *shudders*
For Mohan and Pal the reality of this really hits home.
“Studying in a convent girls school, we were always taught to be good to everyone around and bear a cheerful smile. After stepping into the real, cruel world we realized that our smile could not last for long as the threat to our purity and integrity always lingered on. Since the lawmakers take ages to come up with just laws and even after that, women are unsafe. Hence, we have initiated the idea of self-defence, which protects the women from domestic, social and workplace harassment.”
If the law can’t or won’t protect you it seems the best thing is to help yourself. [ Source ]
