E-Diriya: An app that aims to make women feel safe
View(s):By Mahesh De Andrado
The Colombo Municipal Council and the Carter Center, a US-based Non-Profit Organization, launched E-Diriya, a mobile app to help keep women safe when travelling. The app was launched for Women’s Day this year.
What exactly is E-Diriya?
The app is all about providing information and support to women in the event of an emergency or if they are in danger. Think of it as a platform that would provide women with the required knowledge and emphasize the numerous support systems available to women in the Colombo District.
Using E-Diriya
Having installed the app, I was impressed with how easy the app is to use. The app is trilingual, meaning it’s available in English, Sinhala and Tamil. Once you select your language, you must create an account by entering your name. Once that’s done, the next step is to fill in your emergency contact details. These include a name, relationship with said contact and their contact number.
Setting up e-Diriya is quite simple
E-Diriya will also request access to your internet via mobile data or Wi-Fi and your device’s location. These details are used to triangulate your location and provide you with a list of important areas (more on that later). Once all these were done, E-Diriya was all set to go.
The first thing I noticed was how polished the interface looked. It’s easy to navigate and understand the key elements you need in an emergency situation. The app utilizes the Google Maps API and shows you the nearest police stations, hospitals and other essential locations/places of interest. The distance to each location is also shown, along with directions to get there via Google Maps. You can also place a phone call directly by pressing the “Call” button at each location.
Located at the bottom center of the app is an important feature of E-diriya; the SOS button. Press the button, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you will be asked to tap three times if you’re in an emergency or potentially dangerous situation. Once you have tapped it, an alert will be sent to the closest police station, the CMC switchboard, and your emergency contact.
In addition to these features, E-Diriya also includes a resources section that provides helpful news articles about women’s empowerment and personal safety. There is also a Services section that lists all major police, medical, emergency, COVID-19 and other services if you need assistance or need to contact them. Lastly, the “My Profile” feature allows you to edit/update your basic information and emergency contact details if required.
How effective is E-Diriya?
From the time I had with the app, I must say the initiative is indeed praiseworthy. Even though it’s aimed at helping women, it can be used by anyone. Google has their Safety app as well that functions similar to this. In the app, you can carry out a safety check and have emergency sharing. With a safety check, you can set a timer (for example, one hour) and a reason for the timer (going for a walk/run/transportation).
If there’s no response from you after the timer runs out, the app will immediately notify your emergency contact, and you can also contact emergency services (in Sri Lanka, 119).
With emergency sharing, you can share your real-time location with your emergency contacts until you turn off sharing.
Getting to the root of the problem
But there are certain other points that one must consider as well. For starters, E-Diriya primarily focuses on helping women in the greater Colombo area. If steps were taken to launch it in other areas of the country as well, that would be beneficial.
It’s up to each of us as a society to rally around and come together and ensure women’s safety, regardless of who they are to us.
Unfortunately, the current context takes the stance that women’s values are almost always defined in relation to others (someone’s mother, sister, daughter etc.) and not as individuals.
You can download the app from the Google Play Store or visit the E-Diriya website (http://www.ediriya.org/).
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