Wanna help the homeless? Click a pic and send it to officials on ‘Urban Dost’ 

HYDERABAD: Have you always wanted to help the needy but not know where to begin? Thanks to the State government, you can now do it with a swipe on your mobile phone. The Telangana Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas has developed an Android-based mobile app to connect citizens with the homeless and destitute in need of shelter. Urban Dost, which will be launched shortly, can be used by every citizen with a smartphone to report a homeless person. “The government will use this information to locate such persons and provide shelter for them,” MEPMA Mission Director T K Sreedevi told Express.

“Though there are shelters established for the homeless, public still spot several of them on roads and streets while commuting. But, they don’t know how they can be of help in rehabilitating them. There is a need to fill that gap and provide a solution that makes citizens a part of this initiative,” Sreedevi added. 
Explaining the app’s functioning Sreedevi said that after downloading it from the Google Play Store, users will have to select their respective Urban Local Bodies before proceeding further.

 
“Once you get in, the app will activate the mobile camera. All you have to do is a click a picture of the homeless person and hit send. The app by itself will take the exact location from where the image was captured. The location is geo-tagged,” she explained.  Users can also give visible remarks of the person, such as gender, approximate age, wounds on the body, nearby landmarks and the like. They can also share their own contact information so that the person can be contact in case any additional info is required.  

Once the user submits the form, based on the location and area from where the form is submitted, system sends the information to local officer concerned and the NGO or agency maintaining the shelter. Local officers concerned can act upon the same and relocate the homeless/destitute to the nearest shelter. Also when user submits the information, the app shows her the location of nearest shelters. 

Users can also see the details of shelters like the area, pictures of the location and contact information on the app. A Cloud-based dashboard would be provided to authorities to view the information received along with location details. “They can easily keep a track of the information on the dashboard and take action for better administration,” Sreedevi said.