Community Mobilization – Winner 2014admin2022-02-01T13:04:56+05:30
Community Mobilization – Winner 2014
Dindior Wariis a centuries old palkhi procession of pilgrims from Dehuand Alandito Pandharpur in Maharashtra. The pilgrims are worshippers of Lord Vitthala and are called Warkari. The processionis held every year during the months of June and July. Every year 5-6 lakh people participate. Facebook Dindi is an initiative to connect people scattered around the globe who are unable to participate in the actual procession due to their work, illness or other commitments. Since 2011, a Facebook event page has enabled about 10 million people to participate in the procession virtually through live updates of images, written description of events, videos etc. The people running the Facebook event page cover the procession right from the beginning till the end constantly updating the page with posts in real time with captions and descriptions aimed at making the virtual Warkars feel that they are actually taking part in the palkhiprocession.
“Blood Connections” is a web-based platform that brings together blood recipients and donors from all over India. Anyone who is need of blood can use this service.The site allowsusers to easily find blood donors around them by search options like city,maps or pin code. Through one click users can send in SMS, e-mails, tweets or Facebook comments to people in their network. Segregating the list blood group wise and location wise helps the user to find blood at the right place at the right time. The user needs to key in the pin code or just search city-wise to generate a list of blood donors in the city. He can also run a search blood group-wise in a particular city.The consumers can find blood for their near and dear ones at a click of a button. Users have to login to the website, search for a particular blood group in the map and the donors list comes up. Users can also send an automated message to everyone on Facebook and Twitter. So far, the site has more than 7400 registered donors while 715 people have been contacted through the platform.
Technologies which helps small and medium businesses set up e-commerce websites have launched an e-store where you can order and pay online for a cup of tea to be delivered at your doorstep if your office or home is in the Bandra area of Mumbai. Launched in June 2014, the web-based e-shop called chotuchaiwala.com has tie ups with 5 chaiwalas who deliver tea to select locations in Bandra after receiving orders online. Users can subscribe and pay online for one week, two weeks or one month and tea will be delivered once a day to the user’s address, from Monday to Friday, every week.
In three months since June, 2014 the website has received more than 200 orders. Zepo used social media such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the concept. A video that was created for the purpose went viral on Facebook with over 1400 shares and 30,000 plays. On Twitter, the concept trended for an entire day across India. The initiative got covered in newspapers, blogs and news channels like The Hindustan Times, Mid Day, etc. Zepo has also provided thechaiwalascustomised T Shirts and paper cups to help them market their online store to their customers.
Community Mobilization – Special Mention 2014
The Hyderabad Traffic Police launched in August 2011 a social media project to connect with citizens to resolve commuters’ queries, take suggestions from them and implement them, take complaints, improve the image of Traffic police, connect with youngsters, and improve knowledge of traffic rules among commuters.The project involved launching a Facebook page and a Blog and it has resolved many queries of the public at large and the forum has helped them to raise questions and suggest changes on the ground which can help ease the traffic in Hyderabad. With more than 151000 people liking the page, the community is one of the biggest for any government department Facebook page.
Most of the general queries were answered in the form of blog posts. The Facebook page was promoted with activities such as Contests, Banner creation, etc. Suggestions from the public for road transport etc were taken and passed on to the Commissioner, Traffic police for speedy implementation. Many suggestions have been implemented. The blog still gets 2000 people everyday which helps provide answersfor most citizen queries. As a result of the campaign, traffic awareness has increased, corruption among traffic cops have come down and commuters have become more disciplined.
