iBihar.org, which was the first set of solutions that was selected at the meeting of the National Action Group of PIIndia (Parliamentarians with Innovators for India), which is an inclusive, bipartisan, Pan-India action group for fighting COVID-19. This group has been responding to the pandemic by collaborating with Members of Parliament in India, state level legislators, policy makers, specialists and business leaders to help the teams offering innovative solutions that impact, improve, and/or save lives of the migrants and the urban poor, facing multiple vulnerabilities.
The ‘iBihar.org’ – an initiative for the migrant workers trapped in the emerging financial distress emanating out of Covid-19; is being led by Anis Bari, an author of the bestselling ‘The Dreams of the Mango People’ and is currently enrolled at Master in Public Administration Edward S. Mason Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Anis being an avid social entrepreneur co-founded an Edtech (GoodEd) to provide quality education even to poor students of remote areas. Also campaigned for the rights of young and adolescent girls by technologically strengthening the campaign against child marriage, sexual harassment and domestic violence in his home state Bihar.
The hashtag #iSupportMigrantWorkers #iAmBihar #iBihar started by the team has received commendable support from the people and the masses on social media.
The initiative seeks to lay out a working model where Members of Parliaments, state-level elected representatives and every citizen can contribute through crowdfunding campaign as well as other initiatives to help the millions of migrant workers who are returning to Bihar and facing mass exodus, due to shutdown of operations in various cities across the country. Bihar being one of the poorest state of the country lacks resources to be able to provide these families with even the minimum required support. In this context the People can play an instrumental role in mobilizing resources from outside the state using technology and effective campaign tools.
“We aim to enable meaningful collaboration between citizens, parliamentarians, and industry leaders who wish to make a difference to the communities during this difficult time”, a representative of iBihar said while outlining the broader objective of this initiative. Through this initiative, iBihar team has already claimed to have touched the lives of more than 2500 people till now. People register on the website and app for the help, with a small verification fund transfer that gets initiated within 24 hours.
Apart from the direct cash transfer through tech enabled platform, the group has also launched a chatbot and an android app called ‘Bihar ka Sathi’ app to spread awareness and provide quick support in case of any emergency. As per the description available on the website of iBihar (www.ibihar.org), it captures details of the person raising the SOS along with their geo-coordinates, that is their exact location, and shares it with the relevant authorities for redressal. A web-based chatbot through this initiative provides information about various facets pertaining to the virus outbreak such as latest figures, travel advisories, myth busters, donation options and professional advice by medical professionals from AIIMS and others in four different languages, which includes English, Hindi, Maithli and Urdu. It sources information from the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health, India.