Checking Violence Against Women: Govt app sees only six rescue pleas in about six years

The government's "Joy" app, developed with a budget of Tk 45 lakh to tackle violence against women and children during emergencies, received only six rescue requests in five years and nine months.

Since its inception in July 2018, it got two rescue requests that year, three in 2019, and none in 2020 and 2021. It received one in 2022, and then again none in 2023 and so far in 2024.

However, emergency situations involving violence against women and children have not only continued but have, in fact, risen alarmingly.

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‘Violence against women is a violation of human rights’

According to Ain O Salish Kendra, at least 6,641 women were reportedly raped and 321 murdered after rape from 2020 to January 2024.

In 2020 alone, there were 1,627 reported rape incidents, yet none were reported through the app.

The app's main mission was to provide immediate rescue services during various emergencies, including physical and sexual violence, sexual harassment, or child marriage.

However, it has been getting requests for many other purposes except its primary one.

If a victim presses the emergency button on the app, her GPS location, audio recording of the surroundings and picture will go directly to the police super of the area, metropolitan deputy police commissioner, three pre-selected "friends and family" numbers, and to the national VAW helpline -- 109.

A victim can also file a written complaint choosing the category of the crime in the app. Anyone can later attach proof, whether video or audio. All the information is kept private and all request texts from the app are toll-free.

Funded by the ICT Division's "Access to Information" (a2i) project, the app was developed by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs under its "Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence against Women".

According to the ministry data, the various other services the app received texts for were as follows: 355 for police-related help, 306 for legal help, 243 related to local arbitration, 31 for medical support and 823 for other information.

However, only six requests were made for rescue purposes, which shows a lack of faith in the app in emergency victims.

About police-related help, Raisul Islam, in-charge of Joy Mobile App and the 109 helpline, said, "Suppose there is a case but the police is not arresting the accused. If such an SMS is received by the app, the investigation officer of the case is spoken to from the 109 helpline. Such help-seeking categories are brought under Police Help."

Also, it got only 43 requests to stop child marriage -- one in 2018, 28 in 2019, nine in 2020, three in 2021, one in 2023 and one in 2023.

This newspaper's findings from 41 upazilas of 13 districts, however, showed that around 10,741 girls and at least two boys were illegally married off during the pandemic-induced school closures between March 17, 2020, and September 12, 2021.

The exact number could be much higher if a proper survey is done.

At the launch, MoWCA authorities said that one can find the app by typing Joy 109 in the Google Play Store but a search from five mobile handsets showed that it does not show up.

According to the ministry data, 4,275 users have installed it on their android mobile devices since December 2019. But the latest data from the Google Play store showed that the app is installed by only 1k+ users.

That means an overwhelming majority of the users, who have installed the app earlier, uninstalled it.  

The latest Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics-2023 conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and released in March this year showed more than 50 percent of the total population of 171 million, aged 15 years and above, use the internet.

The percentage of women in that age group using the internet is 42.6.

WHY IS THE APP FAILING IN RESCUE?

Speaking to reporters about the app ahead of its launch, Abul Hossain, the then project director of the multi-sectoral programme of MoWCA, said that apart from providing immediate redress to victims of any abuse, the app is working to identify criminals.

"The app will be identified as a 'threat' to criminals or torturers. If everyone starts using it, the level of crimes will also decrease. Once it is installed and active, the criminals cannot turn it off even if they want to. The data will automatically move to the specified location for a specified period of time."

Speaking as the chief guest at the app's launch, the then state minister for women and children affairs Meher Afroz Chumki said, "This app will help women and children, while also working against criminals. A total of 12 crore people in country use mobile phones now and such apps will definitely be useful for the users."

However, according to statistics, such goals were not met.

Bangladesh Mahila Parishad President Fauzia Moslem said that though the app was initially heavily promoted, its significance waned over time.

She emphasised the importance of further promotion and also providing training on the app's usage to relevant stakeholders, particularly those facing or addressing gender-based violence.

Moslem suggested conducting campaigns in educational institutions to raise awareness in this regard.

Criticising the zeal for undertaking projects over their implementation, she said, "They [the government] engage in this type of work for the sake of starting a new project, and once it is initiated, they are not bothered about the implementation."

Contacted, the "Multi-Sectoral Program on Violence against Women" project director, Dr Prakash Kanti Chowdhury, who is also the joint secretary of the ministry, said, "The app is undergoing reconstruction for a few months due to compatibility issues with certain Android versions. We are trying to ensure accessibility across all versions."

He mentioned privacy concerns with Google, resulting in the app not being visible in the Play Store.

"We're working with Google, and hopefully, within a short period [15 days], once troubleshooting is completed, request volumes and service provision will increase."

Regarding the low request numbers, Chowdhury declined to comment citing that he was appointed only six months ago.

"Some rescue calls go to 999 as well," he said, which indicates the potential confusion in emergency response systems.

"However, the app should have reached more people," he admitted.

Contacted, Tawfiq Rahman, CEO of LumexTech Solutions, the app developer, shed light on the technical issues leading to Google's non-public listing of the app.

"Google's Android 10 update restricted the SMS feature of our app. Additionally, features like activating the app with five presses of the power button are rendered non-functional due to recent built-in features by mobile companies.

"Moreover, with Android 12, Google introduced stricter privacy policies, flagging our app's functionalities, such as capturing pictures and audio recordings, as privacy breaches. We've been in dialogue with Google for the past three months, striving to address their concerns."

About alternatives to the Play Store, he said, "We shouldn't rely solely on Google. If the government independently promoted the app in all their portals or made it a default feature on mobile devices, we could bypass these restrictions."