The number 112, equivalent of the American 911, has been adopted as the single emergency number for India. The proposal to have a single number for various emergency services, approved by the inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission, would be similar to the ‘911’ all-in-one emergency service in the US. All existing emergency numbers will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112, depending upon the awareness about this new facility.

• In India, different emergency communication and response systems are in place — police (100), fire brigade (101), ambulance (102) and Emergency Disaster Management (108).
• Also, a number of states have notified various helpline numbers for assistance to special categories of citizens, like Woman in distress – 181 (Delhi), Missing Children and Women – 1094 (Delhi), Crime Against Women – 1096 (Delhi), Police Headquarter helpline – 1090 (Uttar Pradesh) etc.
• A person in distress will now need to call 112, which will direct the call to concerned departments immediately for help.
• The service will also be accessible even through those SIMs and landlines whose outgoing call facility has been stopped or temporarily suspended.
• A user will be able to make communication even through SMS and the system will learn about the location of the caller that will be shared with the nearest help centre.
• The service will be operated by a call centre like facility, which will have representatives speaking in Hindi, English and the local language.