Facebook to initiate disaster response tools in India
Social Media giant, Facebook along with the National Disaster Management authority (NDMA) and an Indian non-profit body- SEEDS- have promised to assist them with the tools in order to effectively respond to the natural disasters.
Facebook has decided to bring in the disaster maps that would exhibit the aspects such as movement of the people in ell to the concentration of them post any calamity.
According to Ritesh Mehta, Facebook head of programs of India, South and Central Asia, the motive behind the introduction of these tools is to improve the response of the natural disasters in India. He said that before and after any crisis, the response requires apt information to help the communities to response, recover and rebuild.
Through the medium of Facebook, the concentration of the area, witnessing high number of Facebook users going offline is an indication of some mishappenings at that particular areas and hence, rush services can be initiated.
The Disaster maps tool was successfully implemented in the year 2017. It uses accumulated location information; that the users have shared on the Facebook. These tools have already been employed in the countries of Peru and US.
Facebook Disaster management initiatives:
- The social media platforms have been widely used by the people in the past during any natural calamity in order to reach out for the dear ones.
- The platform usually has a safety check feature that allows the dear ones to keep a check on each other’s safety.
- Facebook is holding its first annual Disaster summit in India with NDMA, where many humanitarian organizations will discuss how technology can be utilized for obtaining better responses to natural disasters and the following recovery.
- It is also supporting the pilot of ASK-DIV (Aapda Samaachaar Karyakarta- Disaster information volunteers) through which the trained volunteers would be providing the additional information in order to inform the Government relief efforts through the Facebook platform.
- The event which is being organized by the SEEDS, will build a network of volunteers to provide a real time, first-hand details of the disasters in their local communities.
- This programme is planned to begin its debut in India from the two disaster prone states including Assam and Uttrakhand.
 and an Indian non-profit body- SEEDS- have promised to assist them with the tools in order to effectively respond to the natural disasters.){kind=link}