what is the cost of your safety so is it
a cup of coffee is it a really nice
high-end lipstick or is it a lifetime of
regret
pretty Center does not need any
introduction
but I I wanted to sort of you know share
with you a few things which actually
resonate with me when it comes to Preity
Zinta first of all I want to talk about
a couple of words which in my opinion
describe her better than anything else
I think one she's a very courageous
woman so I think courage is one word
which comes to my mind when I when I
think of her and something you will hear
today would be perhaps related to that
she's done a lot of unconventional films
she's very unconventional
and what what reminds me most about her
is she is very endearing
the films which she's done are
uh
sangharsh laksh Mission Kashmir Kal Ho
na ho as you will notice many of them
very unconventional very bold roles in
in most of them
I think the other thing which many of
you may know about her is she's not only
an actress she is also an entrepreneur
and a corner of a cricket team uh and
finally she is what really stands out in
in the last 20 20 odd years which when
we know her in in public as a public
persona is she's a valiant human being
who testified against Mumbai underworld
when most men of Bollywood refuse to do
so so she she is indeed man amongst all
the all the people in Bollywood and
pretty this is one thing we really
admire you for so presenting to you
pretty Zinta modern woman who lives life
on her own terms very warm welcome and
thank you for being here wow thank you
so much uh whoever wrote that for you I
think I should pay them for it that was
amazing thank you so much
um it's wonderful to be here today and
um
I'm here to talk about women's safety
women's issues uh um women's safety is
not just a problem in India it's
actually a global issue but uh what are
we doing for it
um how can we be part of it is a
conversation it's an ongoing
conversation why I am talking about it
here in this forum is uh even in 2017 uh
if women say we want to uh compete be
equal to men you can't compete and be
equal to men because the minute you want
to follow your dreams and leave your
house your parents tell you don't go out
better it's not safe
and uh you can go and work till six
o'clock but if you want to work post six
o'clock then uh it's best you don't do
it and let it
um let someone else do it so the point
is if you don't have an equal platform
and you don't have equal opportunity
how do you strive for that excellence
and
um and strive to do well in life so um
we have come come out with something
called covet safety and I think you as a
father so the one thing I asked um uh Mr
Watts right before entering was like do
you have any daughters because if you
have daughters uh you kind of will
understand what I'm saying much more
than if you didn't
and he said yes I had two I have two so
I had this big grin on my face and uh I
was like okay and before we go into the
other serious aspects of it I just want
to say something on a light-hearted note
that behind every successful man there
is a woman behind every unsuccessful man
there are two women
but behind every successful woman is a
progressive man it's either her father
it's her brother it's her husband so but
he's always Progressive so um should we
start yeah yeah sure so I want so I
think first of all congratulations for
launching covered safety I think it's a
fantastic idea how's the journey been
and what is the what is what are the
first set of people you want to sort of
you know address amongst women as well
is there an age group you are targeting
first with kavach uh pretty or is it is
it for everybody what is what is this
welcome it is for everybody but most of
all it's you see if you look at sexual
crime and uh you see the uh reports and
stuff it's mostly younger women and of
course women going out of their homes so
uh a first set of people are definitely
students women that work
um so going back to my journey when I
first started with this project and I
started uh so because I invested in a
qriket team so people now come to me and
say hey let's invest in a business
together so I said okay you know when we
think of something interesting we'll do
it
uh one fine day I woke up and I said
okay you know
um this is something I want to work
um on
um and then I started approaching people
and saying let's do something on women's
safety and the first thing everybody
told me was why don't you become a
social worker
and I was like okay but why does this
have to be social work why can't it be
uh then the next thing I was like and
the next thing I heard was women's
safety well women will be safe if they
don't go out at night so
I mean seriously it was a joke but it
somehow was really sad that we don't
even and then the worst I heard was
you're worried about women's safety
people don't have water to drink and
food so no one really cared about uh
women's safety and that's the reason and
this was five years earlier and that's
the reason I'm here today
so um so what is the uh would you like
to tell us a little bit more about the
app actually what are what are the
features and how does it sort of work
well coverage is actually a total and
holistic solution
at the Press of a button but it's backed
with high-end technology and forensic
support So to put it simply if anything
ever went wrong uh you could subscribe
to this app or you have a physical
device a lot of people prefer an app and
not a device but basically uh if you
press the button
somebody is going to come and look out
for you not just somebody come and look
out for you it will also help in
collecting audio forensic evidence
so the only way you can bring down crime
is uh if anything ever happened to a
woman the best way to protect her is
obviously physically go protect her and
then take her to a hospital but how does
that prevent crime it doesn't really
prevent crime crime can only be
prevented if the rate of conviction goes
up and the only weight rate of
convictions can go up is if you can
collect
evidence and if it's a forensic nature
which is audio forensic evidence it is
easier to work with it in court so
um it works uh so do you download this
app or how does it sort of work if you
have to pay for it and how does it sort
of yes okay so it it yes you have to pay
for it it's a subscription of 300 rupees
so what happens is when you subscribe
yeah you have to download it you go to
our website we'll give you a particular
number you download it once you download
it we ask you for three things one is
your emergency contacts if anything ever
happened to you who do we call two is
your medical history so if you are
diabetic you have high blood pressure
you have in any anything uh your medical
history your blood group and everything
yeah and third is your voice sample so I
would probably say hi my name is Priti
my coverage number is one two three four
five whatever
when something goes wrong
um you press the button immediately you
uh you can hold it down on your phone
and it discreetly
uh sends a message to an Emergency
Operations Center which is not a call
center it is a private emergency
Operation Center it's not the police and
as soon as they uh find out there's a
problem they will within their screen
they will immediately it geotags you so
they know exactly where you are if
you're walking you're running you're
moving you're hiding a they know that
and B as soon as you activate the app it
immediately becomes an audio recorder so
it records everything that's happening
in and around you and gets stored in a
cloud which can then be accessed by a
forensic unit because the way a
fingerprint is very unique to you so is
your voice
as soon as the Emergency Operations
Center realizes that you're in trouble
the first call goes to the police which
gets recorded because legally you have
to call the police uh we don't wait for
the police to pick up the phone or do
anything as soon as the ring goes it's
recorded they will immediately send a
price private response back to you and
the private response will be anything
from two people to five people they are
let's say they're five so they're three
men to women the men would be from
ex-army X Special Forces backgrounds the
women will be ex-army medical
backgrounds
uh they will find you
um how an Ola cab or an Uber will find
you right they'll find you they come
with body cameras and mics so that if we
reach before the police
um it's well established that we have
not contaminated the crime scene or
fiddled with any evidence they will come
and they'll help you
um record your police statement hold
your hand through your fir they'll help
you through uh I mean take you to the
hospital if something is really bad and
all the beginning of it gets covered by
insurance so that if something does
happen to you
um
we don't then you don't have to then go
into the whole process of giving a bill
finding out how this is and stuff like
that and from Victim Advocacy and uh so
even things like Victim Advocacy and
stuff that's also covered by insurance
so in some ways it's
um not just helping a woman but it's
helping a woman with a heart and at the
same time it's Pro victim
anti-perpetrator so if if
you are involved in a crime
um you cannot run and you cannot hide
it's a very good idea I I heard you say
talk about armed forces and special
protection group so any reason you've
chosen that and not there are quite a
few specialized people as well in this
area now who do exactly this piece
actually you know so from a security you
know security is becoming a full-fledged
business and there are a lot of people
who are into security very specialized
yes but if you
looks Army Express
so it's like you know uh they've done
this all their lives they are very
um they've done it under different
circumstances so my partner in this is a
gentleman called Anthony Morehouse he's
Australian and he is an ex-special
forces Commander he used to uh
um so he did this for high net worth
individuals across the globe in 155
different countries for over a million
people they do emergency response uh
it's obviously more uh expensive and
done for high net worth individuals so
we've brought that down and uh um focus
and we're focusing on the women and yes
my own infrastructure and network in
India is very good with the ex-army uh
my brothers in the Army my dad was in
the Army my friends are all there so
it's easier to tap that and also the
fact that they have a very strong
discipline and a code of conduct so
that's why
one one quick question I you know uh
this what if the area does not have uh
you know bandwidth or Wi-Fi so is there
an option because I think particularly
in India at the moment it's getting
better by the day as you know yes but
there are Pockets where the signal is
not strong or not there and so on and so
forth so how does that work so what
happens is let's say there's no network
here and then there's a gap here and
there's a network there right so as soon
as you drop it here it'll have the last
uh location and it'll immediately pick
it up there
so it is the way technology is done so
this is one thing which uh I'm not the
tech person to be honest but this is
something I kept questioning because I
was like I don't understand it but uh it
has a way of working by the way
um they work it around technology and it
kind of
um it tags it
um and somehow it works they they uh
it'll skip it unless you're going
completely into the forest
then that I'm sorry is not going to work
so uh I mean everything has its
limitations still
um India I mean even a four I mean if
the phone is not working or if your
phone's battery is dead
then what do you do so is the app
currently uh localized or sort of
geo-targeted for India or is it
available everywhere in the world no
it's Target it's for India we are
starting a test uh pilot in Pune with 50
000 women and in those 50 000 45 000 are
going to be students from universities
women working in
um offices and I.T companies and 5 000
of those women are going to be we're
doing it for free and uh those women are
going to be all from families of
paramilitary forces Army police cirpf
BSF and
um only for one reason that um you know
if uh the men the brothers the fathers
from all these families go to protect
our country I think we can look after
their women you know very good so
um
so we are we're actually what we're
doing is in this a lot of my active
friends and everybody have been very
helpful and we are opening up a
crowdfunding uh Zone where people can
contribute uh from a rupee to 100 rupees
to whatever and it's just a very small
way for us to say thank you to all those
families because they have tough lives
yeah you're absolutely right uh I think
it's something which is which is which
one would look forward to and is a very
welcome step it's it's really a good
idea well thank you I think our biggest
uh problem uh our biggest uh is uh issue
that or problem that we're going to face
is everyone thinks it's never going to
happen to me
it's it's going to happen to someone
else and
you just every single day you might not
need something like this but that one
day that you need uh is the day that you
really need to think about so when we
went to students and some students were
like yes this is very important some
students were like oh you know uh 300
bucks I don't know so I asked this girl
what is the cost of your safety so uh is
it a cup of coffee is it a really nice
high-end lipstick or is it a lifetime of
regret like
um so do you also think that like uh
it's never going to happen to uh me or
is it no no and there's no question and
I think the pricing personally if you
ask me at about you know four to five
dollars or 300 Indian Rupees is is very
very very reasonable I think this is a
life-saving app it's an it's an app
which is very different and therefore
should have takers in my opinion as we
go forward well I hope so so when uh all
of you come across if you're not living
in India
um please
um if you are not living in India right
now since it's Puna centered I can't say
buy one for yourself but please if you
if you do uh uh care then do donate to
someone in need because uh I think uh
it's time we actually take women's
safety seriously and not just talk about
it when something bad happens and make
it a dinner conversation but actually uh
be part in making a difference
um for it yeah thank you so much and as
you boil the ocean once again and make
sure that you know there is something
that this is indeed a great product you
know thank you and and congratulations
for thinking of it or for making it
happen and all the very best for a
family thank you thank you
take this with me
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thank you
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