As the rape epidemic sweeps over India, an 18-year-old teenager invented a sandal that women can use to electrocute and temporarily paralyze would-be attackers.
Siddharth Mandala, from Hyderabad in India, came up with the Electroshoe after fearing for the safety of the women in his family. The conception of the Electroshoe started when he attended a rally protesting the 2012 gang rape and murder of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh in Delhi. As the protests can sometimes prove to be ineffective, he decided that the problem needed practical solutions. And that’s basically how the Electroshoe came about.
Siddharth told the Sun: “When I attended the Nirbhaya rally with my mum, people were still protesting to get justice for a rape that happened weeks before. While I was as enraged as the rest, I also understood that protests wouldn’t change the past.”
“Punishing the rapists, hopefully, would deter would-be rapists, but I kept thinking we needed to equip women with a safety device,” he continued. “After much trial-and-error, I came up with a concept I called Electroshoe.”
So why did he choose to create a self-defence shoe, and how does it work? You basically need to kick after pressing the big toe for five seconds, and that would electrocute the attacker by shocking him with 0.1 amps – enough to paralyse him for a couple of seconds while you flee the scene.
But electrocuting the perpetrators isn’t the only thing the Electroshoe does. It can also send alerts. “The Electroshoe sends an alert message to nearby police stations and family members indicating that she is in danger.”
The Electroshoe is powered by footsteps – the more the wearer walks the more energy is generated and stored. Currently, Siddharth is trying to develop the prototype into a market-friendly product and iron out some technical aspects (like waterproofing the sandals).
What do you think of the Electroshoe? Sound off in comments!
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