Table of content-

• What is 112?
• How it will work?
• Features.
• When to use.
• Availability/States
• Digitalization

What is 112?

The ‘112’ helpline is a combination of police (100), fire (101), and women (1090) helpline numbers, and the project is being executed under the central government’s Nirbhaya Fund.

The Nirbhaya Fund was set up by the central government for projects specifically designed to improve the safety and security of women.

In November 2018, Himachal Pradesh became the first state to roll out the ERSS, under which there is a single emergency response number across the country — 112.

The single number for emergency services is similar to ‘911’ in the United States.

The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) envisions a single pan-India emergency number ‘112’, which is an internationally recognized number, to target all types of emergencies.

To access emergency services, a person can dial ‘112’ on a phone or press the power button of a smartphone three times quickly to send a panic call to the Emergency Response Centre.

In the case of a normal phone (Text cellphones), a long press of the ‘5’ or ‘9’ key will activate the panic call.

How it will work-

Here are how anyone can contact-

1. Dial 112 from your phone;
2. Press the power button on your smartphone 3 times in quick succession to activate Panic call;
3. Long press the ‘5’ or ‘9’ key on your feature phone to activate Panic call;
4. SMS to 112 from your phone;
5. Log on to the State ERSS website and place your SOS request;
6. Email SOS alert to Emergency Response Centre in the State(erss-112@police.ladakh.gov.in)
7. Use the 112 Indiamobile app (available in Google Playstore and Apple store) to activate a panic call.

ERSS tracks the rescue and service vehicles of all services (Police, Fire, Health, etc) in real-time on a digital map of the State/UT and hence it will be possible to direct the right vehicle(s) to reach the service requestor and provide necessary support immediately.

Features

1. Single emergency number nationwide (Dial-112).
2. Effective 24×7 services for Citizens.
3. Citizens can request help through Voice Call, SOS, SMS, Email, Web Request, and Panic buttons.
4. Automatic location identification of the caller/victim.
5. Dynamic emergency response service from the nearest emergency response vehicle.
6. Service from Police, Fire, Medical, and Natural Disaster Management Teams.
7. Emergency service coordination from a centralized control center in the State capital/Union Territories.
8. Improves decision-making in an emergency which minimizes response time.
9. Live tracking of emergency response vehicles.
10. The totally ‘indigenous’ software solution developed by C-DAC.

When to use

An alert can be activated anytime simply by pushing the power button or by calling on 112, whenever you feel your safety or the safety of another person is in imminent danger. The exact location of the person in distress is forwarded to the Control Room of the state and the location of the victim is displayed on the GIS map of the city of a Call Taker.

Location-based tracking of victims can be done through location-based services of all phones or even more accurately through GPS for smartphones.

A call can be made in the following cases-

• Women Safety.
• Child Protection.
• Fire Alarm.
• Medical Emergency.
• Need Police.
• Location Lost.

States and Union Territories

Services are available nationwide including all the States and Union Territories.

Here is the link to the nationwide Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)

https://112.gov.in/psap-address

Digitalization

There is an app named 112 India. The ‘112’ India app provides for ‘shout facility’ designed especially for women, for enlisting the support of volunteers, who have registered themselves with the state police, for emergency response.

A panic button is already provided on all mobile phones, which on activation will trigger an emergency call to ‘112’. The Emergency Response Centers (ERCs), being set up by the States and UTs, can receive panic signals via voice call to ‘112’, email requests on the State ERSS website or the ‘112’ mobile app, the official said.

Location-based tracking of victims can be done through location-based services of all phones or even more accurately through GPS for smartphones.