Covid Heroes from Dhanbad: IIT Students develop a Covid resources portal
Some students from IIT(ISM) Dhanbad are providing information on Covid resources through a web portal they have created.
3 students of B-Tech final year of IIT (ISM) Dhanbad in Jharkhand successfully have been able to develop a web portal, collecting & showing Covid resources and information all over India in a structured method. This website gives info regarding the availability of hospital beds, plasma, medicines, oxygen, ambulances, etc. for Covid patients and their families throughout the country. These students, who are between the ages of just 20-23 have been working on this website. As the country is fighting against the second wave of the pandemic, several states have had a shortage of oxygen cylinders & hospital beds. Web portals like this one help Covid-affected people and their families to acquire verified information.
23-year-old Mayank Roy, with a couple of friends, has developed a website that is also a community-based portal. The basic idea itself, behind their portal, was to have a community-based portal. This is a Covid-resource portal by the people, for the people. Thus, the resources available on it would be a contribution by the community itself.
If visitors on the website have any links regarding oxygen beds/plasma, they can add it to the website. They have a team of moderators who can verify the links, making sure they’re not spam. They then make the link public within a day. The website also has editing options, where one can replace/remove links that aren’t working anymore.
How the Portal Came to be – As of now, this Covid portal has 4 people who’re working on it. All of them are B-Tech final year students of IIT Dhanbad. This portal was an idea of 2 of Mayank’s friends - Prateek Divyanshu & Tazril Parveez Ali, who started working on it on the 3rd of May. Within just a few days, he joined them as he wrote great content and could help them spread the word about the portal. Suyog Jadhav joined the team after the launch of the website on the 9th of May & helps them with the server.
Mayank and his father had Covid in December 2020. Then, fortunately, they didn't face any shortage of beds/resources, but it's making them feel more empathy for people now. Prateek’s, (who’s one of the co-founders) family also had Covid just a couple of weeks before they started work for the website. It helped them connect more with the people right now. He says that being IITians, they’ve got the privilege of possessing the knowledge to inculcate our skills & getting ahead of others. It is only fair to give something back to society. This motivated Mayank to join the portal.
Initially while launching the website they had 500-600 users on the very first day. Now they have 100-200 users every day. The second phase of the website development is being worked on right now. They initially didn't have a live bed tracker on the portal but have now have made the addition through official government sources. They are now hiring volunteers as well. They are going to divide the states amongst the volunteers, and they’ll be in charge of uploading resources there.
This was the story of these covid heroes who are helping the whole nation with their portal. If you know of any such websites, tell us in the comments below. If you found this article inspiring and enjoyed it, do visit the space for more such content!