Indian members of NGO 'Aastha' hold placards during a protest in Mumbai for better safety for women following the rape of a student in the Indian capital.

There is a global epidemic of sexual violence against women that persists despite significant progress in gender equality for health, education and legal rights. The #MeToo movement in the United States launched last October and has kickstarted a movement to tackle this troubling issue after it was revealed that even the most prominent women in the media and entertainment industry have suffered from assault.

But even before the problem became a hot-button issue on social media, it was top of mind for Anu and Naveen Jain — technophilanthropists and the co-founders of such legendary companies as InfoSpace, Intelius and Inome. They launched the $1 million Women's Safety XPrize in October 2016 to challenge teams from around the world to develop a device that can inconspicuously trigger an emergency alert if a woman is in danger and transmit the information to a network of community responders — all within 90 seconds and costing under $40.

After scouring the world for a solution, the winning team for the Women's Safety XPrize was announced Thursday at the United Nations. A total of 85 teams from 18 countries vied for the top spot, but Leaf Wearables from New Delhi was the grand prize winner that met all of the Women's Safety XPrize criteria.

The five finalist solutions were tested to see how the devices might fare across a variety of

environments, including high-rise office buildings, college campuses, in public transit and at

home. Devices ranged from smart jewelry that can trigger emergency alerts to wearables

that detect physical gestures and speech recognition for emergency triggers. Most important:

All of the solutions from the finalist teams work in areas where there is no cell connection.

Leaf Wearables' technology, called Safer Pro, is an enhanced version of their smart safety device Safer. Safer Pro is a small chip that can be put into any device or jewelry. When a user is in danger, she can press a button on the device, which sends an emergency alert with location details to a user's guardians. It also lets you record audio.

According to Anu Jain, the $1 million prize will help Leaf Wearables scale up their business. "What makes Leaf's technology a good device for global use is the fact that it runs off BLE 4.0 technology and a mesh network so any message can leap from one device to another with a very low signal."