Anti-Rape Underwear: Lingerie Can Shock Sexual Offenders, Send Emergency Alert Signals Through GPS

In light of the Delhi gang rape where a 23-year-old woman was brutally raped on a bus and later died in December, Indian citizens are taking action to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again.

Three students from South India have merged technology with activism with their latest invention: a line of “anti-rape” underwear and lingerie that can shock sexual offenders and send alert signals to authorities and parents through built-in GPS.

The lingerie called Society Harnessing Equipment, or SHE, was created by Manisha Mohan, Rimpi Tripathi and Neeladri Basu Pal, three engineering students from Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University in Chennai, India. According to the students, the underwear is both equipped to send as many as 82 shock waves to potential molesters, as well as GPS and GSM modules to send emergency alerts to parents and police.

"The lingerie, laced with modules of global positioning system [GPS], global system for mobile communications [GSM] and also pressure sensors, is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 kV, as well as alerts to the girl's parents and police," Mohan told The Indian Express. "A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules would send a SMS on emergency number 100, as well as to parents of the girl.”

The circuit is placed near the breast area, according to the students, based on research that indicates women are first attacked in the bosom area.

Mohan said she hopes the anti-rape lingerie can provide women with a sense of security and “freedom from situations faced in bus, public places” in light of the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old student last December on a Delhi bus amid the rising tide of female sexual violence in the country.

"After the Delhi gang-rape incident and the rape of a Bangalore BPO worker, I felt women are being tortured in the name of safety,” Mohan said. "Henceforth, we decided to come up with something innovative, which helps women protect themselves besides not being abandoned in the name of safety."

According to statistics from human-rights workers, thousands in India lose their lives each year due to rape, domestic assaults and other acts of violence against women. Crime records in the country, from India’s National Crime Records Bureau, show that one woman is raped every 20 minutes.

Since the tragic event in December, countless women in Delhi have applied for gun permits to protect themselves in cities like Delhi, where rising violent crime and declining confidence in the police and courts have put many at risk.

“We want to interface this system with a smartphone using bluetooth and infrared. The pressure sensor will send a signal to the smartphone through bluetooth, which will in turn send stress messages instantly,” the students wrote.

The students developed the prototype of SHE and are currently working on finalizing the product so it can be sold beginning in April.

"I have approached a friend of mine in the National Institute of Fashion Technology to help me find the right kind of fabric for the product so that it can be a washable one," Mohan said.