‘Power’-packed coats for women’s safety

Hyderabad: Adventurous males who are prone to groping women are in for a shock, literally, if the lady is wearing a particular kind of coat aptly named ‘Abhaya’. The coat, developed by three Hyderabad-based BTech graduates, including a designer, not only sends a jolt of electricity up the hands of the miscreant but also triggers […]

Hyderabad: Adventurous males who are prone to groping women are in for a shock, literally, if the lady is wearing a particular kind of coat aptly named ‘Abhaya’. The coat, developed by three Hyderabad-based BTech graduates, including a designer, not only sends a jolt of electricity up the hands of the miscreant but also triggers a host of other safety measures. And it keeps the woman wearing it warm and comfortable!

In the event a woman wearing the ‘Abhaya’ coat is confronted with such a situation, all she has to do is press a couple of buttons that activate a gadget to send mild electric shock, send SMS alerts to five registered contacts saved by the user in a special mobile app and record the GPS location. It doesn’t stop there, it also sets off a piercing alarm and initiate an SOS call to the nearest police station, sharing the location using the GPS, R Shashank Reddy, one of the three partners, told Telangana Today.

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“Even if the victim forgets or doesn’t manage to press the buttons in such situations, the friction or intensity during any tussle is enough to activate the safety measures,” he said.
The prototype of the coat was unveiled by MLC K Kavitha here on Friday. Priced at about Rs 3,500 per piece, these coats are made of denim and bohemian cloth and are equipped with emergency buttons on the left and right sides.

Complimenting the three graduates, Kavitha said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao accords top priority to women’s safety. “Telangana government introduced She Teams and takes stern action against people who misbehave or harass women,” she said.