The Situation before the initiative

Emergency is a sudden unforeseen crisis usually involving danger that requires immediate action and it is a situation which poses an immediate risk to life, property, health,or environment. But the worst part of an emergency is that it comes without any warning. At the time of the emergency everybody gets panicked and the first thing that happens is that we lose all our rationality and senses.  During such moments  a person needs assistance and therefore Emergency Help Line or Phone Nos have been developed keeping in mind the response requirement for dealing with emergencies.
However, some countries have a different emergency number for each of the different emergency services. In India, most of the departments have individual numbers viz. 100 for Police, 101 for Fire, 102 for Medical, 103 for traffic police, 104 for Health Information Helpline etc.The same was the case in the State of Assam.
But, in times of crisis it becomes very difficult for the public to remember these different emergency numbers. The need was felt that an integrated one point Crisis Response Help line Number will help the public by providing timely response to the affected people at the time of exigencies in the State of Assam.



The Initiative
The initiative is to have a unique number for all emergencies by integration of existing emergency numbers of different emergency service providers for providing assistance to the public.To facilitate a one point crisis response helpline for the entire state, Govt of Assam decided to integrate three different helpline numbers of the Fire services, Police and Health under one single emergency helpline number 108.



The strategies used to implement the initiative
Integration of different helpline numbers into a single universal number (108) was launched in Assam in the month of October, 2012. The idea of integration took root in July 2010 and it took over two years to get it grounded.

Call Flow Process: