KOCHI: The ‘She Taxi’ service, operating under the Gender Park initiative of the Social Justice Department, has come to the help of elderly people struggling to get to hospitals and medical stores during the lockdown period.‘She Taxis’ are driven by women and funded collectively by Gender Park and Global Track Technologies. They have been making their services available since April 5. As many as 43 taxis operating in various parts of the state have transported around 250 elderly patients to hospitals and delivered 140 medicinal requirements. Around 20 cabs ply in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
The service, initially made available within 15km radius of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode cities, have been extended to Kollam, Kottayam, Malappuram and Kannur districts in tie-up with various service providers. Helpline numbers 7306701200 and 7306701400 take calls from various parts of the state and direct the nearest taxi to the residence of the caller. The services are completely free for BPL category and are provided at a discount of 50 per cent for the economically-weaker group.
“The initiative was mooted by the health minister. Since starting the facility, we have been receiving an increasing number of calls even from areas that do not come under our purview. In such cases, we coordinate the calls with the local administration or police depending on whether emergency healthcare is to be provided. A telemedicine service too has been started in collaboration with Help Age India an NGO,” said Sooraj Kumar, MD of She Taxi company.
Help Age India
In its collaboration with Gender Park, Helpage India has offered the services of its two mobile medical units, including medical practitioners, with the She Taxi call centre. The units are at Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram. Hence, elderly patients now have the option of utilising telemedicine service of doctors of the NGO. “Patients can make use of phone-in-services or have video- consultation with our doctors. The prescribed medicines are then delivered by She Taxi operators,” said Biju Mathew, director and state head of HelpAge India. “In addition to tying up with She Taxi, our services are available across the state through the helpline,” Biju added.