Save the Children, Nokia deploy technology to make Government Schemes more accessible

This mobile application would enable any citizen to know about their eligibility to various government and private sector schemes through a simple one-time screening process

Haqdarshak, launched recently, at the District Magistrate’s Office in South-East Delhi, is a social protection application which aims to connect 50 communities in slums across South-East Delhi with various Government Schemes. This mobile application would enable any citizen to know about their eligibility to various government and private sector schemes through a simple one-time screening process.

The Haqdarshak model based on mobile and desktop-based platform, is aimed at digitising the schemes and enabling citizens to apply for their rightful entitlements. The app has been created by Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions for a pilot in Delhi.

“We are happy that Save the Children and Nokia are initiating this in our district, and we hope that the initiative will enable the most vulnerable in Delhi to access social schemes more easily,” said BS Jaglan, District Magistrate.

Developed by Save the Children for its Nokia-supported programme on building resilience of communities by using technological solutions, the application is part a programme on building resilience amongst communities and children across five disaster-prone States of India, i.e, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. This is being done by strengthening access to social protection schemes with the use of technology in 350 most vulnerable villages and slums.

The features of Haqdarshak:

• It is a citizen-centric model to create access
• It digitizes database of welfare schemes in a particular State
• It is an incentive-based model, with a recruitment of 1 Haqdarshak to cater to around 1000 households

It is based on Mobile App/Web Portal with rules engine, thus, the App could be deployed on Android phone or desktop.

There are survey questions within the Technology application, necessary for screening an individual. The software applies the rules set to tell about the eligibility of an individual to ‘n’ number of schemes

• The application has a checklist for documents, needed to apply a particular scheme
• There is a ‘Helpline service’ for the customer, seeking any kind of support
• There is a proper established monitoring mechanism by Haqdarshaq company at the ground level