The Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) flagship digital safety initiative Sanchar Saathi has achieved a major milestone, facilitating the recovery of more than 6 lakh lost and stolen mobile phones across India.
The Block Your Lost/Stolen Mobile Handset facility, a core feature of the AI-powered Sanchar Saathi platform, integrates DoT, telecom service providers, and state/UT police in real time. Built on the theme Digital by Design, the platform enables citizens to report, block, trace, and unblock stolen devices across all Indian telecom networks. According to DoT, the system is now helping recover one phone every minute.
Once a stolen device is reported, it is immediately blocked across telecom networks to prevent misuse. If a SIM card is inserted into the blocked handset, an automated traceability alert is generated and sent to both the user and the concerned police station. Citizens also receive details of the police station handling the case via SMS.
The recovery rate has shown steady improvement, with monthly recoveries rising from 28,115 in January 2025 to 45,243 in August 2025 – a 61% increase over eight months. DoT attributed this to deeper collaboration with law enforcement agencies and rising citizen awareness.
“This milestone reflects more than just numbers. Each recovered device represents restored communication, prevented fraud, and renewed digital trust,” DoT said in a statement, adding that the initiative underscores the government’s vision of a cyber-secure Digital Bharat.
Launched in May 2023, Sanchar Saathi has recorded over 19 crore website visits and more than 90 lakh mobile app downloads. In addition to the handset-blocking service, the platform offers several citizen-centric features such as Chakshu to report suspected fraud communications; Know Your Mobile Connections to verify all active mobile numbers linked to a user; Device Authenticity Verification to check IMEI genuineness; International Call Reporting to flag suspicious overseas calls with Indian IDs; and Trusted Contact Details to access verified contact numbers of banks and financial institutions.
The app, available in Hindi, English, and 21 regional languages, can be downloaded on both Android and iOS.
DoT has urged citizens to immediately report lost or stolen phones via the Sanchar Saathi portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in).
