App to link volunteers working with stray dogs

Pune: The city-based non-governmental organization Sare Jahan se Acha Socio Eco Pol Foundation has developed a mobile application called Indies to connect volunteers working with stray dogs.
Volunteers involved in feeding, vaccination, providing medical attention and sterilization of the Indian pariah dogs, better known as indies, will be able to use the free app to perform their tasks efficiently. The app will be launched on March 17.

Priti Narsimhan and her husband Raja, who run the foundation, felt there was a dire need to reduce the human and animal conflict through awareness drives. Their belief inspired the creation of the application.

Priti pointed out, “Some government bodies have come up with various guidelines to tackle the issue of growing indie population, increase awareness regarding cruelty towards animals and vaccination programs. Tuned to the above guidelines, the mobile application is a technology platform that aims to enable volunteers working in the field to perform their tasks more effectively and efficiently. It is a hyper-local connect and care system.”

Elaborating further, Raja explained that the system works towards creating a link between indies, buddies or volunteers and buddy heads or the head of a ward office.

“Buddy heads are none other than experienced volunteers, who have been performing welfare tasks for a few years. Every civic body is made up of wards, localities and sub-localities. In order to motivate the buddies and buddy heads for the tireless work, we have introduced games in the app that involve scoring based on the tasks they perform,” said Raja.

The couple hopes that the app would help speed up sterilization drives to scientifically and systematically control the stray dog population. At the same time, it would also aid in implementing various vaccination programs, including the anti-rabies plan, through existing channels.