News

Victims of domestic violence report abuse via ATM-like kiosk in India

The Instant Complaint Logging Internet Kiosk was deployed in a bank in Bhubaneswar as part of a six month pilot program.

August 29, 2014

Manju Mitra, 38, is a victim of domestic violence. She is an Indian woman living in the eastern city Bhubaneswar, and like many women, according to The Star, she thinks twice before reporting abuse to the police. Many women abused in India are chaperoned by husbands and brothers to police stations to report the crimes for fear of sexual harassment and an "all-male," "macho" atmosphere, the article said.

But since Mitra's husband was her perpetrator, she made the journey alone. She had been beaten after he demanded a larger dowry of 200,000 rupees. Her husband and his friends intercepted and threatened to kill her if she contacted law enforcement and she never reached the station.

Inspector General of Police Joydeep Nayah was aware of the difficulty in reporting violence after the Dehli gang rape in 2012. He knew that a woman's right to report a crime was limited if she was afraid to enter a police station without a male escort.

Nayah's epiphany came when he noticed an ATM one day on his trek to work.

"Women were being denied a fundamental right because of this fear of going to the police. Why should they need someone's help to do something so basic?" Nayah said in the article.

So, Nayah dreamed up the ATM reporting machine for abuse complaints. Eventually, word got to Mitra.

"A friend had told me about this new ATM-like machine for police complaints, so I went there on Saturday. I typed out my complaint. In ten minutes, I was out. It was so easy, I wish more women knew about it," Mitra said in the article. She now lives with her father.

The Instant Complaint Logging Internet Kiosk was deployed in a bank in Bhubaneswar as part of a six month pilot program. The ICLIK allows women to type a report or scan one already written into the machine, and if they are illiterate, ICLIK allows them to speak the complaint instead. Once a report is made, the machine issues a receipt for tracking its progress and it is sent electronically to police.

"My dream is to have a kiosk alongside existing ATMs, in schools, railway stations and bus stations, all over the country — so that women can walk in, complain and leave without any escort or hassles," Nayah said in the article.

ICLIK is used by 8 to 10 women a day in the Bhubaneswar area.