In a country where government statistics find that a rape occurs every 22 minutes, Indian women have come up with a creative way to attempt to combat their country's pervasive rape problem: anti-rape jeans.
Students Diksha Pathak, 21, and Anjali Srivastava, 23 have designed a pair of red jeans with a small electronic button that, when pressed, sends a signal to the nearest police station. The signal also acts as a tracker, so police can easily find the location of the victim.
Over 200 police stations are already capable of receiving the alarm in Vanjasi, the girl's hometown, and its surrounding areas, with tests set to take place next month, in hope of making the technology readily available across the country.
“We have been thinking of making this device for a long time,” Pathak, a science student, told Central European News. “My father is often making himself ill with worry each time I am coming home late.
“These terrible gang rapes of women that we have heard so much about recently shocked me and my colleague to the very core. Hopefully no other women will have to suffer if they are wearing our clothing,” she continued.
The anti-rape jeans, which cost less than 43 cents, come just months after India launched its first women-only handgun, designed to help women defend themselves against rape and gang rape, while students in the country have also designed anti-rape underwear that will give an attacker a nasty electric shock. The underwear also comes equipped with GPS tracking so it can alert parents and police to potential assaults. Similarly, and also designed by students in India (see a theme emerging here?), the anti-molestation jacket discharges 110 volts of electricity when it detects unwanted devices, using the concept of a stun gun as inspiration.
In a country where its leaders would oft prefer to stay silent - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week asked that people 'stop politicising rape', thankfully its people are forward thinking and ingenious enough to attempt to devise their own methods of protection.
Just last week, a UN child’s rights committee charged Indian authorities with not doing enough to fight sexual violence. Let's hope they make a difference.
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Picture: Twitter
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.