- Kuldeep Dhyani, New Delhi, India  & Tanishq Jaiswal, Prayagraj, UP, India, 10th May 2021. 

Active to Arogya

Today India is at war front against COVID-19. From January of 2020 till today, we are all witnessing its impact on families & friends. No matter which class, caste or creed you think you are from. But when it comes to COVID-19, make one thing clear in your head that we are all sailing on the same boat. If we want to emerge victorious against this threat, we will have to unite together & fight this invasion costing us the lives of our loved ones.

Indian healthcare system collapsed as the system is overwhelmed as the daily COVID-19 cases are booming day by day. There is no authentic data that gives a clear picture of the number of COVID-19 cases as the testing accessibility is limited to a class of society. 

The Indian socio-economic reality is such where the government is bound to distribute food to 800 million people in need. Now you can realise how difficult it will be for those people to get tested for COVID-19 & start their treatment. We will not go deep into the economy but we will have to consider it at every step we design for help. 

Largely Indian economy is classified into two types based on regions known as rural & urban. Each region has its challenges which we will address while deciding on how to tackle this war.

If you are up for participating in this war to help humanity get out of it in your region. Then getting aware of self is a must to remain oriented towards the goal. 

How can I protect, help & fight till this war is not over?

There are two questions to be raised to start towards the goal.

What is the ground report? 

How are we building conscience in addressing this war against humanity? 

As we have no robust system in place which can provide us with the ground realities of the region. We need a strategy to regenerate the system which should assess the current situation. What is happening in-ground and who all are helping & who all can help on the ground.

For that, the Government of India started an initiative of the "Arogya Setu App". This mobile application is playing a key role in informing people & getting information from them. But this is happening at a limited capacity & we are beyond the information phase as COVID-19 is making penetration at the village level.

"Active on Arogya" can be the way forward to assess, assist & allocate.

We need to encourage people to actively participate in providing their health-related information to the Arogya Setu app. Making people do this will help us assess the current situation of not just individuals but the regions as well. 

We should add more features in this app such that we can provide help to the needful. This could become a lifesaver tool for the people of India who are distressed by this attack. We should extend this app & turn it into a super app. By integrating all the available real-time covid resources information like beds, plasma, oxygen, medicines, food providers information, frauds resolvers, free doctor consultation and vaccine booking slots. People who are economically/conditionally deprived of resources will get access to the above.

We can connect all the major stakeholders like MP, MLA, Sarpanch, DM, Municipal bodies, etc to allocate the resources using one app. This way we can confirm the allocation reaching the respective individual. Having a model to authenticate the allocation at different levels will increase the transparency & accountability within the structure of the system. Time-bound modus operandi will help us ensure the timely allocation of resources at the regional level. 

We already know the complexity of technology & user relationship is a hurdle in India. 

The accessibility to the smartphone is dense in the urban areas & less in the countryside. To solve this problem we can engage the Indian Telecom Sector. 

We can also use "FLASH SMS" to get information from the people regarding their well-being. Integrating the information with AADHAR we will be able to authenticate the data as well. These steps will allow us to create an outreach and help assist people at a personal level.

India is a democratic country & in a democracy every voice matters. We will have to uphold the voices which are going unheard. We need to strengthen democracy to set an example of how we can unite to fight against this pandemic. 

Please share this as much as you can to ensure it reaches the ones who can draw action.