Guwahati, Aug 3: In flood-hit Assam, technology-driven initiatives are helping connect affected people with volunteers, relief agencies and donors to ensure assistance reaches remote areas.
A free mobile application, ‘Helpmonk’, and a crowd-sourced live map, ‘Banpani.org’, are among the digital platforms launched to coordinate relief efforts and bridge the gap between victims and those willing to help.
The flood toll in the state has risen to 85, while over 1.35 lakh people remained affected on Monday, officials said.
Helpmonk, launched on Sunday by boutique travel venture Firingoti, is designed to connect people affected by disasters, natural calamities and emergencies with volunteers, NGOs, government agencies, rescue teams and donors through a single digital platform.
While its immediate focus is the ongoing floods in Assam, the platform has been designed as a nationwide disaster response tool, Firingoti co-founder Anuj Kumar Boruah said.
The long-term vision is to expand the platform globally so that communities anywhere in the world can benefit from a coordinated disaster response ecosystem, he said.
Helpmonk aims to support the entire disaster management cycle, from raising SOS alerts and locating stranded people to coordinating rescue operations, delivering relief materials, rehabilitation support and long-term recovery.
The application has been developed by Dikshit Rajkhowa, a technology professional based in New Delhi and originally from Assam.
Rajkhowa said, “We built the first version of the application in less than a week because we understood the urgency of the situation in Assam, but the architecture has been designed to scale for disaster response anywhere in India.”
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, co-founder of Firingoti, stressed the initiative is entirely humanitarian and said, “Helpmonk is completely free to use. Firingoti does not earn any revenue from this platform.”
She added that the platform can also become a valuable resource for journalists, researchers, policymakers and relief agencies by providing real-time information from the ground, helping improve situational awareness and response planning during disasters.
Another platform seeking to connect affected people with relief providers is Banpani.org.
Sharing its details, senior journalist-author Mrinal Talukdar said it is a community-built, community-run flood platform developed by Partha Borthakur, working with North East Agriculture Technology Entrepreneurs Hub, an agri-techno business incubator of Assam Agriculture University.
Talukdar said the crowd-sourced data may be incomplete at times, but it is striving to fill a gap of linking those in need with those coming forward to help in a swift manner.
Banpani is a free, community-run live map to coordinate flood relief in Assam so no area is left stranded, and no two convoys collide in the same village, the official website of the platform said.
It stressed that while it belongs to no one and has been built by volunteers, it is not a replacement for official rescue. (PTI)
