KPITB re-launched “Safe Women App” with enhanced features

KPITB or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board had launched an upgraded version of Safe Women App specially developed for the women commuters who are traveling via the Pink Sakura buses. With additional features, users will be able to connect with friends and family while sharing the live location at the same time.

Managing director of KPITB Dr. Shahbaz Khan said while giving the demo of the newly added features of the app: “Through this safety app, women and girls can share their live locations with trusted contacts, give distress signals to family and friends, call police emergency numbers, rate the safety levels of the location and check the live location of the bus.”

KPITB launched the app for the Sakura Bus project designed especially for the women of KP. Japan financially supported the project while technical support came from UNOPS or United Nations Office for Project Services and United Nation-Women. The demo was attended by the Chief Minister’s special advisory Ziaullah Bangush, Trans-Peshawar representative, and female members of the provincial assembly.

UNOPS headed the project and procured 14 buses and constructed 31 fabricated bus stops and installed solar-panels as a source of electricity. The route for buses was specially designed with the help of the Transport and Planning Engineering Unit or TPE so that all educational institutes are covered.

The sole purpose of the Sakura Bus project is to make women more mobile and enable women to have more access to education and job opportunities.

Zainab Hussain head of sub-office United Nations-women Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said: “UN women Pakistan, as the specialized agency for promoting gender quality and the empowerment of women, has worked together with KPITB on this mobile application to facilitate female commuters on Pink Sakura buses in two cities of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.”

She further added: “Women‘s safety in public places is very important for their well-being as well as economic empowerment.”