Despite measures by Indian government, the number of children going missing, is rising. Traditionally mothers applied a black dot (known as Kaala Teeka in Hindi) using Kohl on a child to protect them from the evil eye. We turned this cultural practice into a black coloured, real-time GPS device that helps track the location of a child thus protecting them from the evil of child trafficking. We strategically named it 'Kaala Teeka' to increase acceptance among rural parents. The innovative device is built such that it can be used by feature phones without the need for an app or internet.

Almost 174 children go missing everyday and around 10 lakh children go missing every year in India. Almost half of them remain untraced. Many children go missing from rural areas .Unfortunately, looking for a missing child requires time, manpower and resources, and India falls short on all of these especially in the absence of a National Missing Persons repository. Also interstate police co-ordination in India is extremely poor and hence many children remain untraced forever. Action Aid (an international NGO) is committed to preventing child trafficking and wanted to help protect children in a non-intrusive manner. They wanted to look for a way to track the child through GPS such that it could facilitate inter-state police co-ordination and help bring back missing children. A key challenge that needed to be tackled was the strong belief in superstitions and the suspicion towards technology among rural people especially where children were concerned.

For the first time a deep rooted cultural superstition that was supposed to ward off evil was turned into a progressive cutting edge technology device that helps ward off evil for real. Naming the device "Kaala Teeka" helped in gaining acceptance from rural parents who are averse to technological products especially for children. Kaala Teeka is a compact portable longlasting GPS device that could be camouflaged on person of any child to ensure that he can be tracked in case of trafficking. The device, small and light-weight, can be concealed in tight spaces such as child’s school bag, pencil case, tiffin box…even the heel of a shoe and is securely linked to the parents’ phones, thereby allowing easy tracking of the exact location of the child via SMS. Keeping in mind children and their activities, the device is designed as highly durable, damage-proof, water-resistant, and has a long-lasting rechargeable battery.

The key dates were 1st August 2018 to 1st Feb 2019. Being a one-of-its-kind product, the development took around 3 months and the testing and distribution was carried out over the span of 3 months

The device is based on Machine-to-Machine SIM (or M2M SIM) technology that enables it to communicate with a mobile phone. It includes a magnet which acts as an antenna to detect accurate location. The device is pre-programmed with a command which is set off when an SMS is received and enables detection of GPS co-ordinates. Post detection a reply SMS is sent with the co-ordinates to the mobile phone which released the initial SMS. This is a finished product already pilotted in villages and is ready to ship. Bulk production and cost efficiencies are being worked out.

Over 100 devices were piloted in 3 villages

Campaign attracted national TV coverage on NDTV; The Ex-Education and IT Minister of the state of Bihar pledged support to the campaign. The Deputy Superintendent of Police (Bihar) praised the campaign and acknowledged it as a much-needed initiative to stop child trafficking. Government bodies from across the country are considering distributing the handy device to many schools in their districts. We expect the Kaala Teeka to become a norm in the high trafficking states in India. This device could help camouflage and track children that go missing daily. If produced on a national level the cost of Kaala Teeka would be reduced under $30 making it accessible to even the lower income rural population. The long-lasting battery and durability of the device ensure that it could easily last 3-4 years. Currently to build the 100 devices around 5000$ has been invested.