BENGALURU: In a novel move, the Karnataka government has created its own app Dasoha-2020 - a combination of Swiggy and Dunzo for the poor - through which volunteers can deliver rations or meals to labourers unable to access food during the lockdown. According to a statement filed before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice BV Nagarathna of the Karnataka High Court on Thursday, labourers can request for food through the Hunger Helpline while the Dasoha-2020 app takes care of delivery.
Food requests are transferred to the sub-zone concerned, and the app assigns the request to the nearest volunteer, who picks up the food packets and delivers it to the requester. The toll-free food helpine (155214) launched by the labour department with 20 seats per shift and 30 lines, was initially to cater to the food requirements of the homeless, daily wage labourers, migrant workers, etc., has been enhanced to 120 lines and 80 seats per shift.
The centre is operational 24/7 in three shifts and supports calls in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English. A 20-seat per shift additional outbound call center has been set up at Vartha Soudha in order to follow up on the requests received by the Hunger helpline and do a test check of the food requests attended to.
Bulk requisitions are directly delivered from the kitchen to the site. Information about requests for dry ration is shared with BBMP as it is entrusted with the task of distributing dry ration/food kits. Requests from Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural areas are shared with the respective deputy commissioners for the purpose of relief work. Similarly, the district-wise requests are shared with the district administration concerned.
Requests received so far 57,353 (51.19%)
requests for cooked meals 26,345 (23.51%)
requests for dry ration 1,12,039
calls to Hunger helpline (155214)