Emergency information in India
112 is the single nationwide line for police, ambulance and fire, free even from a phone with no SIM. The National Tourist Helpline on 1800-11-1363 or 1363 runs 24 hours in 12 languages and handles scams and lost documents.
Emergency numbers
112 works free of charge even from a phone with no SIM card inserted.
- Single nationwide emergency number (universal line for police, ambulance and fire service): 112 (can be called free of charge even without a SIM card inserted).
- National Tourist Helpline: 1800-11-1363 or the short code 1363 (available 24 hours a day in 12 world languages including English, providing immediate help in emergencies, scams, or lost documents).
See the Health section for hospitals with 24/7 emergency departments in the major cities.
What 112 is behind the scenes, and the app that goes with it
112 is not just a number: it is a system that takes calls, SMS, emails and panic signals into one platform, routed by state control rooms to the nearest response unit.
- 112 replaces the old separate numbers for police, fire, ambulance and disaster response, and is the one to dial from any phone.
- It accepts more than calls. The Emergency Response Support System takes voice calls, SMS, panic signals, email and web requests through a common platform.
- Calls land in a state control room (a Public Safety Answering Point) which dispatches the nearest response unit using its own mapping.
- The 112 India app sends an SOS with your identity and location - name, age, emergency contacts - so a dispatcher is not starting from "where are you?".
- The SHOUT alert is a women's safety feature: it calls registered volunteers nearby at the same time as the control room, on the theory that someone close arrives first.
- The call is the reliable path. App integration was rolled out state by state, so treat the app as an addition rather than a replacement.
One number, several ways in
India consolidated its emergency numbers into 112, and the system behind it - the Emergency Response Support System - was built to accept an emergency however it arrives: voice calls, SMS, panic signals, emails and web requests, all on one platform. That matters in a country where a call is not always the easiest thing to make, and where a signal may only be good enough for a text.
Calls are answered by a Public Safety Answering Point in the state capital, which locates you and dispatches the nearest emergency response unit; the vehicles report their positions back, which is what makes "nearest" mean anything.
The app is worth ten minutes at the airport
The 112 India app adds a panic button that sends an SOS with your stored details - name, age, emergency contacts - alongside your location. For a visitor the value is not the button but the profile: the part of an emergency call that goes wrong here is the address, and the app removes it from the conversation.
Its SHOUT feature, for women, alerts registered volunteers in the vicinity at the same time as the control room.
Coverage of the app was built out state by state, so do not rely on it alone. Dial 112 first; use the app for the location and the profile it carries.
What a hospital will expect
Specialised treatment is concentrated in the major cities, and outside them the realistic plan for anything serious is transport rather than local care. Insurance that covers evacuation, not only treatment, is the difference between a bad day and a ruinous one - and the insurer wants the call early, ideally from the hospital, not a week later with a folder of receipts.
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