Thozhi

Turning Technology into Protection

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Inspiration

The inspiration for Thozhi came from real-life concerns around women’s safety during daily travel—especially at night, on isolated routes, or when immediate help is unavailable. We observed that existing safety solutions are often reactive, slow, or disconnected from families and nearby police. This motivated us to design a system that prioritizes instant response, trust, and privacy, while being practical for real-world use.

What it does

Thozhi is a real-time women safety ecosystem that enables users to trigger a one-tap SOS, instantly sharing live location, audio evidence, and case context with trusted family members and nearby verified female police officers. The platform also provides live family tracking, AI-assisted safe route navigation, secure chat and voice communication, and offline SOS via SMS when the internet is unavailable.

How we built it

We built Thozhi using React Native (Expo) for the mobile app, ensuring cross-platform support. Google Maps Platform is used for live tracking, routing, and nearby police detection. Firebase powers authentication (OTP-based login), real-time data sync, cloud functions for SOS logic, notifications via FCM, and secure evidence storage. The system follows a role-based architecture for girls, family squad, and police users.

Challenges we ran into

Key challenges included ensuring privacy without invasive verification, handling real-time location updates reliably, preventing SOS misuse, and designing flows that work even under poor network conditions. Balancing security, usability, and ethical considerations was a major design challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Designed a privacy-first Safety ID + QR system

Built a real-time SOS and police matching flow

Implemented offline SOS support

Created a scalable, role-based safety architecture

What we learned

We learned the importance of ethical design, especially in safety-critical systems. We also gained hands-on experience with real-time systems, location services, and cloud-based architectures, while learning how to design technology with empathy and responsibility.

What's next for Thozhi

Next, we plan to enhance AI-based risk prediction, integrate institutional onboarding (colleges and workplaces), improve multilingual voice support, and expand the police dashboard analytics for better prevention and faster response at scale.

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