Government reaches out to those in remote areas via tribal diaries app

NEW DELHI: Wrongfully denied land title? Dissatisfied with the school building? Now, the government in Delhi is just a mobile app away. The Centre has developed an app – Tribal Diaries – to reach out to 10 cr tribals directly and hear their stories.

Tribal Diaries would help the tribals living in remote corners of any state to put their stories through videos on the simple mobile app. If a beneficiary of Forest Rights Act wants to tell his story, he would be able to take a video clip and then upload it on Tribal Diaries. The tribal affairs ministry is planning to launch it next month. A senior ministry official told ET, “We have had a soft launch of the mobile app. We are in the process of testing it. We should be able to formally launch it by May.”

The mobile app is being looked at as an interface between the government and the tribals. Apart from success stories, the tribals can easily put up their grievances. The ministry officials would be able to see the state of school buildings, provision of drinking water supply and even reach of other government interventions like scholarships in the remote areas.

Apart from personal experiences of tribals, the ministry is considering the mobile app as a way to check how systems are functioning at the grassroot level. Officials inspecting school buildings, primary healthcare centres, bus stops, road or any other inspection would be encouraged to shoot videos on their mobiles and put them up through this mobile app.

This audio-visual inspection report would help us in knowing the real picture at the ground level.