A simple call can save you

When Valentine's Day was being celebrated across the world with romantic fervour and enthusiasm on February 14, Tasnima (not her real name) ended up being tortured by none other than her husband.

Such physical abuse was not new to her. She had frequently been through that trauma. But that day, her husband dumbfounded her by locking her and their two kids in a room.

Luckily, an idea came to her mind. She took her mobile phone, dialled 999 and sought help.

Minutes later, police arrived at the house in Uttara's Sector-7 and freed them.

"It's like help is at my fingertips. I didn't know getting help was that easy,” said Tasnima.

Sabirur Rahman Shovon had a similar experience. Around midnight of February 22, he learnt that gas was leaking from a nearby house in Tikatuli.

Without wasting any time, he too called up the toll-free number. Sometime later, officials from the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited reached the spot and fixed the problem.

"It seems that a simple phone call saved us from a big disaster. Gas was leaking and a stroke of a match could have been fatal,” said Shovon, a third-year student of Kabi Nazrul Government College.

Every day, hundreds of people like Tasnima and Shovon call the three digit number and get free services from the national help desk, an initiative launched on November 10 last year with an aim to ensure emergency police, fire brigade and ambulance services to those in need.

The ICT Division has also developed a website and a mobile application under the Tk 6.50 crore project to ensure that the emergency services are available digitally through the call centre.

Such short code services were introduced in the UK in 1937 and in the USA in 1968.

Contacted, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, said, "We have developed this service to serve citizens and reduce their hassle."

He said his ministry was planning to extend the project for two more years from the next fiscal year.

The call centre, which has 70 agents, is at Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park in Gazipur. Its main function is to connect the callers to the respective agencies they need.

ICT-related non-governmental organisations DNet and MCC Limited are operating the help desk, which has the capacity of handling 120 calls at a time.

Ashraf Abir, chief executive officer of MCC Limited, said they were very hopeful about the initiative. "With this initiative, accountability can be ensured as all the voice calls are recorded," he said.

Since the beginning of its journey, the desk has received more than 24.31 lakh calls. Of them, 15.82 lakh were valid calls, according to call centre officials.

Of the valid calls, 13,105 came for emergency fire services, 23,054 for emergency police services, and 17,461 for ambulance services. The remaining callers inquired about general information.

The officials said the call centre received around eight lakh calls in just two months. But a big number of the calls were “unnecessary”.

"The pressure is huge and we are getting around 25,000 calls in a week day now. A few months ago, the number was just a few thousand,” said Mehdi Hasan, manager of the call centre.

 The call centre agents were facing a serious pressure as on an average one of them was picking up 700 to 800 calls every day, he added.

But there are other challenges too. The help desk has received around 7.95 lakh prank calls. Frustrated, the authorities have started blocking those who make such calls.

"We get most of the calls from 3:00pm to 10:00pm and if prank calls keep the network busy, a person who is in real need might be deprived of the service and find himself in serious trouble,” Mehdi said.

There have been 3.62 lakh unsuccessful calls as well.

Power outages and security concerns at the centre also can be considered as challenges.

In the last three months, the help desk was out of power connection for about 100 hours, said a call centre agent, requesting anonymity.

Almost half of the total calls came from Dhaka.

The authorities also said the help desk's mobile application has been downloaded 8,547 times so far.

In a meeting with the ICT Division, Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy recently directed it to give this service a permanent shape, said an official of the division.

Contacted, another official said the government was considering the first phase of the service as “study time” and taking reports on it to introduce new services in a bid to make the existing services even better.