Egalcops has been conceived as an online system where women can lodge complaints against harassment. The founder, Deepanshu Tripathi, believes that women would be more comfortable putting in their complaints online rather than going to a police station in India.

Tell me how you came up with the idea.

I came up with the idea of this website after the reading about several offenses against girls in the news within a short span of time at the end of last year.

As the internet is major source of communication nowadays, I felt the need for a system where girls could lodge their complaint online without visiting the police station and facing rude officials. In addition, I think girls would feel more comfortable making a complaint online rather than reporting directly to police officials about what they had suffered.

Although most of the state police in our country (India) have launched their own portals to lodge a complaint online, people hardly know about them, people do not even remember the portal’s name or internet address. So I made this website to provide a centralized and unique (across the country) online platform for girls to report a crime.

Did your idea have to something with the gang rape in December?

The idea actually struck my mind when I was reading something about the Bollywood actress and director Pooja Bhatt being threatened by obscene calls. I thought, if a public figure like Pooja Bhatt is not treated properly on those help line numbers provided by the government, how can a common girl rely on them? I saw the need to provide an online alternative for these help lines as internet is being used widely in our country.

The gang rape incident on December 16 does not have anything to do with my idea directly, but I can’t deny the fact that this incident created a traumatic environment for few days, which inspired me to do something good for our society.

Tell me how your concept works in reality.

The concept is very easy, you make an online complaint in the website while sitting at your own desk then your complaint will be forwarded to the corresponding local police.

How many complaints have you received so far?

I am getting some positive responses from the people. Most of them are girls who are appreciating me for this endeavor. The site is getting popular gradually, hopefully every girl comes to know about this website and it works.

Who processes the complaint?

Well, my website has not been approved by any government law enforcement bodies yet. You must be aware how tough it is to get your work being approved by a government in India and that too when you are just a 22-year-old common guy with no official contacts. But I am looking for a higher officer for discussion to connect this website with police.

I am also working on developing an automatic system which will forward the complaint to the corresponding police automatically after the user lodges it. For that I need the support of the state governments to connect it with their police.

Interview: Roma Rajpal

Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan

Visit the website: www.egalcops.com