HomeHope

Homelessness is born out of other problems and in turn can also lead to whole new set of problems—a never-ending cycle of misery that I want to break. The harsh living conditions and the lack of access to basic hygiene facilities lead to increased risks of infectious diseases, malnutrition, and other physical health issues. Finance is just one of the reasons behind homelessness, but there are many other factors such as addictions, unstable mental health, unemployment, low wages, domestic violence, and family conflict. The stress of living on the streets, the absence of stable living conditions, and social isolation contribute to mental health disorders, aligning with SDG 3's focus on mental well-being and my aspiration to serve and save lives.

Delhi holds the maximum population of the homeless people in India and that’s why I wanted to work towards this issue and carry my project centric to Delhi in the first place. The homeless population sleeping at the public places' impacts everyone’s daily life. For instance, for the person driving on the road, it becomes highly unsafe for the driver and the people sleeping alongside the roads. Likewise for the people living in the vicinity of the homeless people it becomes a societal problem, as the homeless lack basic sanitation facilities which creates unhygienic environment further leading to multitude of diseases. Some people are born with privilege but it’s the individual's responsibility to make sure that justice is achieved in society. the right to shelter is fundamental in a democratic country like India hence any form of differences or discrimination shouldn’t be there and access to equal opportunities and resources are a must. Moreover, power plays a very important role in a to bring change. community

Even with available space in the homeless shelters, they prefer sleeping in public places like footpaths, train stations etc. It is important to encourage them to use the precious resources allotted by the government. My project is dependent on the human willingness to be a part of this positive change in society.

The users can find the location of the homeless shelter near them with the live availability of resources like bed and meals in homeless shelters. The person who views the same can help the needy people around his house. If a person helps more than 300 homeless people in one year, he will be facilitated with an award by the state Government. The People who will help will also showcase that humanity still exists in today’s time.

The nearby restaurants or residents who have surplus food can inform the authorities through App about the excess food, which can be collected by food delivery companies for free to fulfill their Corporate Social responsibility and preserve at cloud kitchens which will subsequently be used in the homeless shelters. It will take minimum 2 hours to identify if the food is surplus and transferring it to the homeless shelters will further take 1 hours. During this period the food goes bad and further becomes harmful for human consumption specially during the summer season when the temperature is hot. That is why we need to keep that food at low temperature hence the food will be carried in a cooling box while transferring food to the cloud kitchen and from cloud kitchen to homeless shelter. The food will be preserved by keeping it cooled in freezer at low temperature which will help in keeping it safe. Further the food can be reheated by the homeless shelters and can be consumed by the people.

The authorities and the management can have access to the live camera footage (surveillance infrastructure) of the homeless shelters to ensure that efforts should be made to harness these public assets to achieve positive social outcomes, such as enabling who are homeless people to find housing for them. This footage will be only accessible by the government and management of the homeless shelter. This will also help in identifying any kind of misreporting done by the shelters for their personal benefit.

On special occasions and events like festivals, thousands of citizens donate food so through the app, users can reserve shelter spaces, provide meals, and donate funds, earning recognition for their contributions.

While there is already an existing mobile app called “Rain Basera,” it is not available on many platforms, like iOS and Android. low impact is visible from the less than a thousand downloads that it has had over its name since its inception in the year 2018. My app is highly ambitious and covers all the shortcomings. My app will have many features that will make it more efficient and, in turn, solve more problems. As the "Rain Basera” app only provides the users with the location of the homeless shelters near them, mine will also inform them about the availability of beds, food supplies, medication, and so much more. The specific geographical jurisdiction for this app initially will be Delhi. It can be expanded later. It will bring urban transformation and rejuvenation. If it’s a great start in Delhi, then this is also going to set a precedent for other states and will altogether help in working towards the fairness and development of society.

Using precious resources in the correct manner would automatically contribute to better health for homeless people, as they will have access to food and a good place to sleep, as most of the homeless suffer from malnutrition and diseases caused by being exposed to the harsh environment as they do not have any place to live.

Furthermore, I also plan on creating secure closed-circuit cameras, monitoring, taped video, and phone operations with fair discussion and talks with the local authority and the responsible government. Great brand-building opportunity for companies to gain CSR points, which in turn would not only help us track the homeless but also reduce crimes significantly.

I am motivated to work on this project for the betterment of society. My purpose in bridging such gaps in society is to help decrease inequality and provide a more inclusive community with a hopeful future for everyone. Solving problems that are limiting people's potential and happiness is a way to achieve fairness in our society while also progressing toward overall welfare and development.

Before embarking upon my project, I first of all decided to gather some donations for the homeless people on the forthcoming special and proud day for us, which is Independence Day (15th August, 2022). This was done by me by sharing a message on the 3 WhatsApp groups with average of 400 members, of the housing society namely DLF Capital Greens, Moti Nagar, New Delhi where I reside. In total, I collected 20 shirts, 15 jeans, 30 blankets and Rs. 5,000 which I handed over to two of the homeless shelters located in West Delhi. I have presented my project proposal to the government of India and they have accepted to fund my project. I met member of parliament Rajya Sabha, Mr. Arun Singh Ji.

My app is in a prototype stage, and it will be ready in a month maximum. Currently, we are testing our app by taking feedback through surveys from students at my school. At this stage, from development costs, feedback gathering, promotion, potential iterations, and even legal compliances, funding has become very crucial to cover such expenses for the project’s future scope.

If successful in Delhi, then it can set a precedent for other states, contributing to the fairness and development of society by urban transformation. It will be a great success for the ideology of integral humanism. Undoubtedly, it’s not just a great brand-building opportunity for companies to gain CSR points, but also helps in reducing crime with additional monitoring, through closed-circuit cameras, monitoring, taped video, and phone operations accessible to the government. 

During interschool competitions, I have interacted with students from other schools, and they all were fascinated to hear my idea. We have representatives from 10+ schools such as Sri Ram School, Pathways School Aravali, Pathways School Noida, DPS International etc. Slowly and gradually the number of students getting involved are increasing as in every 2 weeks we conduct bake sales to gather funds which are further donated in homeless shelters of Delhi NCR.

I have persuaded the design technology department of my school to provide assistance for developing the app. Their insights and skills help make the app more efficient and user friendly which helps me fulfil my research and development part. They also mutually benefit by gaining experience and use their knowledge in real life scenarios. Community service clubs in my school usually help in the circulation of the upcoming events like bake sales and get their contribution in the project. These groups actively participate and support my initiative. I have planned a competition where the students can individually host a fund-raising events for example in winter carnivals, they can host games and get snacks in exchange for funds which will be joined together and donated. The highest fund raiser will receive a special mention during the assembly and other rewards regarding. This idea has been accepted by the coordinators of my school.

If it’s a great start in Delhi, then this is also going to set a precedent for other states and will altogether help in working towards fairness and development of society. It will bring urban transformation and rejuvenate the condition of the state. It will be a great success to ideology of integral humanism. The current generation is so caught in their lives that they have forgotten the importance of humanity. This will be perfect chance to prove that humanity still exits. Great brand building opportunity for companies, to gain CSR points. Will reduce crime, if all the activities including monitory securely closed-circuit cameras, monitor, taped video, phone operations are accessible to the government. 

We have built a prototype version of this app already but it is still in progress as we seeking feedbacks to further improve the app and make it efficient. 

I have studied that the current applications are neither efficient nor successful and less than a thousand downloads is a testament to this fact. Thus, leveraging my inventiveness, I would even pitch this to the government to launch a more comprehensive and expansive app for all platforms or modify an already existing one with more secure features being implemented in government-operated applications (eg., Rain Basera). This can initially cover only the homeless shelter in the Delhi religion, and then gradually expand its data and analyses. Moreover, it has to be ensured that the mobile application is user-friendly and addresses the lags by keeping it properly monitored and optimising the code, image, UI rendering, and resources. This will make it the first of its kind in the market. 

Unique Value Proposition - Users can easily locate the nearest homeless shelters, check the live availability of resources like beds and meals, and will be awarded for assisting homeless people to shelters. Surplus food from nearby restaurants or residents will be collected for free.

Sustainable Advantage - It is a non-profit business, so we have persuaded the government of India to fund our project, making it challenging for others to replicate. Furthering our good relations with NGOs will provide us additional support.

CSR opportunity  - Companies can come forward and take responsibility of the homeless shelters and try to parallelly maintain them which till now have only been handled by government directly or NGO. By this, it would be blessing in disguise by the corporates as they will gain their CSR points. The companies who will participate will be benefitted in numerous ways like better brand recognition, positive business reputation, tax benefits, easier access to capital and organisational growth.