The tragic episode of Kush Katariya's kidnapping has brought to fore the threats the modern society faces. However, technology can provide some help. A special Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled SIM card available in the market could have helped in a crisis like the one that Katariyas and city police faced when Kush was untraceable. This device is useful for the safety of students and young children or anyone at risk.
Superintendent of police, state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Nagpur, Yashasvi Yadav, said that the vulnerable individuals should now start taking the threat seriously and take precautions. There are devices that can help to locate the position of the user, he said. Yadav innovatively used it last year when he was posted as the SP, Kolhapur, to keep track of his patrolling personnel and vehicles. He managed to check dacoities in the district with strict vigilance on patrolling team. He had used the GPS-enabled SIM on around 40 patrolling police personnel to trace their movements during a period of repeated dacoity incidents.
"The GPS-enabled SIM cards are fitted with small speakers and a button. The entire device is so small that it can be stitched into the cloth one wears or carried in a pocket or school bag and such things which would not be generally visible to the others," said Yadav. "I think such device costs around Rs 3,000, which is affordable by many," he said.
"Users can press a button and alert 10 different phones that would simultaneously ring. The GPS SIM's position can be viewed on a GPS-enabled smartphone. The information is very accurate and so one can pin point the place and not search an entire area," he said. "In addition, one can also hear what is going on around the GPS SIM user on a connected phone," he said. Yadav said that he improvised to use it also for a fleet of around 50 police vehicles in Kolhapur and was satisfied with the result.
Not only kidnapping, Yadav said that even the parents can keep track of their growing children with such devices and monitor their friends and movements. With rising population and prosperity, the threat for kidnapping for ransom is also growing and now it seems to have aggravated with Kush's murder. The city already has several precedents. The victim managed to escape on some occasions while in others they were killed.