Smash That Cell Phone!

The Indian Army (IA) is again in the news recently for a cell phone smashing incident reported widely in the print, electronic and the social media. The incident is attributed to certain training establishment of the Indian Army and is claimed to be one amongst many such actions undertaken in the past. While the jury is still out on the question as to whether it was for the right or the wrong reasons, it is a universal truth that any army, or for that matters any uniformed service, has to have its roots firmly held in the soil of discipline. It gets more pronounced in the case of an army by the virtue of the kind of missions that its personnel have to undertake presumably in a hostile environment without caring for personal safety or comfort. Therefore, it all must start at the academies and the training centres, to that almost everybody agrees.

In the IA, the cell phone menace is not limited to the training establishments and clearly has much greater and severe ramifications for the field formations and headquarters at various levels. Therefore, it needs to be addressed in the right earnest. However, the issues which militates against adopting a successful strategy in doing so are the need to remain continuously connected, addiction to social media, ready availability of entertainment content (including pornographic material) and the cell phone becoming an ‘All in One’ device in the present context. This makes it no less lethal than addiction to a psychotropic substance and is definitely a device readily available for distraction, subversion or anti organisational/societal damaging material propagation.

But the issue at hand is that of preventing the un-authorised use of cell phones at the Training Establishments of the IA, and that too specifically of the Officers Training Academies and the Recruit Training Centres. How should one go about solving this problem of cell phones? It is the methodology that brings out the debate. Is it really necessary to employ the capital punishment method for the cell phones (even in an incremental way, having issued warnings and minor punishments)? Or are there other and possibly less hurting ways available? Let us examine certain technology driven alternatives.

Cell Phone Jammers

The Government of India permits use of cell phone jammers by the defence forces having applied for it and received approval of the same from the competent authority. This can be done as per the Jammer Policy of the Government of India, 14 July 2016, hosted on the Cabinet Secretariat web site[1]. These jammers can be procured from either Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) or Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL). Models are listed in the policy referred above. The training establishments can use these to jam all devices for the requisite duration and desired location. However, this would solve only part of the problem, i.e. it would only prevent communication between the handsets to the cell phone tower and vice-versa. So, while no calls or messages could be sent or received, the handset would still be available to the Officer Cadet/Recruit for sundry use including watching videos, clicking photographs and playing games stored on the device itself and not requiring internet connectivity.

Cell-phone Alerter/Detection Systems

 These systems prevent a cell phone being carried into a ‘No cell phone zone’ and do not require any physical search or ‘pat down’. Such systems are available worldwide commercially and otherwise could also be developed by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) with the help of Private Sector. This system alerts the ‘Zone Manager’ that cell phone has entered that zone and consequently it can be confiscated. This system can also be used to temporarily render any device unusable without causing any permanent harm to it.

Fabric Pouches

This method can again be employed to create a cell phone free zone such as academic buildings, auditoriums, training grounds and mess/dining halls. Upon entering the venue, a designated phone-free zone, each Officer Cadet/Recruit may be asked to put their phone into the pouch, which can be locked for the duration of the event. To use the phone one would need to leave the phone-free zone through a check-in point, after which the pouch would be automatically unlocked.

Software or Apps

There are ready made apps such as ‘Flipd’ (Android) which allows a phone to be locked down for a set period of time, and once this is done, there's no going back. Even restarting the phone does not disable the app, so it's impossible for someone to cheat! Flipd can even be used to remotely "flip off" one user from another user's device, which can be done by the directing staff for the trainees’ cell phones. The app allows to black list all or chosen apps to convert the smart phone into a simple and not so attractive device! There are similar such apps available commercially both for Android and/or IOS operating systems. These apps could be mandatorily installed on the trainees’ handsets and usage can be regulated. If need be, an exclusive app similar to one discussed above, can also be developed to be used by the three armed forces.

Behavioural Changes

This can be brought about by a structured guidance programme as well as during the informal interactions between the trainees and the Directing Staff. Though a slow process and arguably with much scope for abuse, it remains the best inoculation for the trainees in all their future postings and assignments. Self regulated personnel undoubtedly are the best case scenario for the IA.

Conclusion

The cell phones are here to stay and there is no denying this fact. To argue otherwise would be a waste of time and effort as well as likely to add a sense of thrill/adventure/dare for the trainees in using these in a prohibited environment. This would surely be counterproductive and a basis of discontent amongst their users. Whether smashing these devices is the way to go is a moot question, best answered by the makers of policy on such matters. The point that it was a cell phone itself which recorded this mayhem has perhaps been overlooked in this entire debate!