The boy invented the high-tech sandal to protect women like his mum. Photo / Siddharth Mandala
The boy invented the high-tech sandal to protect women like his mum. Photo / Siddharth Mandala
An Indian teenager was so horrified by the rape epidemic sweeping his country he invented a sandal that women can use to electrocute would-be attackers.
Siddharth Mandala, 18, from Hyderabad in India, came up with the Electroshoe after becoming afraid for the safety of the women in his family, the Daily Mail reports.
It all started when he attended a rally protesting the infamous 2012 gang rape and murder of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh in Delhi – who has become known as "Nirbhaya", meaning "courage".
Siddharth decided the problem needed practical solutions, not merely protests, and now he's unveiled the sandal capable of administering an electric shock to an attacker, rendering them temporarily paralysed.
In addition to giving the wearer vital seconds to escape, activating the shoe - which is powered by footsteps - also sends an alert to local police stations and members of the wearer's family to let them know she's in trouble.
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.
The boy working on his project. Photo / Siddharth Mandala
"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.
"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?
Siddharth said: "Women might forget to carry pepper sprays, Tasers or any other self-protection tools, but no one would forget to put on footwear before they step out.
"She basically needs to kick (the attacker) after pressing the big toe for five seconds and that would electrocute the molester by shocking him with 0.1 amps.
"It will paralyse him for a couple of seconds, leaving enough time for the woman to flee.
"It also 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.
Siddharth is currently trying to develop the prototype into a market-friendly pproduct and iron out some technical issues, like waterproofing it.
But the young inventor says people have praised his idea.
He said: "The responses are quite overwhelming. I'm happy that people believe in my way of tackling this rape problem."
Every day 95 women were raped in India according to the National Crime Record Bureau's 2015 statistics.
Siddharth has also set up a tech-based charity called the Cognizance Welfare Initiative (CWI).
In one project, he showed kids how to build and programme their own GPS systems so that they could keep track of their younger siblings in a bid to tackle kidnap and sex trafficking.
He added: "I have recently also created a programme to detect malignant melanoma just by using the mobile phone with the help of my friend.
"After further testing, I plan to make it available to doctors working in rural areas without access to expensive technical detection tools."
