COVID FAQ

Submitted by admin on Tue, 21/04/2020 - 22:01

FAQ

Q1. What is CoAST India?

Collaboration/COVID Action Support Group (CoAST India) is a consortium of organizations who have joined hands to map and synergise information on resources, relief services and available infrastructure to coordinate relief and rehabilitation measures during and after the national lockdown for India's migrant workers and other vulnerable population.

Q2. Why was this portal created?

This portal was created to help the government, NGOs/CSOs and volunteers who want to extend relief and rehabilitation support to migrant workers and other vulnerable people during and after the COVID-19 lockdown.

Q3. What information is being made available through this portal?

The portal gives information on the following datapoints:

  • State, District, Sub-District and Village Maps
  • OpenStreetMap/Google Hybrid
  • Parliament and Assembly Constitution Map
  • Road Network (NH, SH, District Road)
  • Health Facilities (Hospital, Health Centre etc.)
  • School Building (around 2km buffer of the road)
  • COVID-19 Testing Facility
  • Quarantine Centres
  • Health Professionals (location and phone no)
  • NGOs Data – Head Offices and District Operation Offices
  • Organization details for helping COVID/lockdown affected people
  • Crowd sources information of migrant people affected by COVID/Lockdown
  • Understand Challenges Faced by Rural Communities
  • Information on migrants stranded in different part of the country belongs to Jharkhand state

Q4. How will it benefit migrant workers and other vulnerable people?

By using this platform, you can get information on parameters like

  • Location of NGOs/Migrants/Vulnerable Population
  • The specific needs of migrants/vulnerable people
  • Location of key infrastructure (schools/hospitals/road network) nearby
  • Location of relief and rehabilitation efforts of NGOs/CSOs

Using this information, you can plan intervention for relief and rehabilitation of migrant workers and other vulnerable people in a more coordinated and planned manner, ensuring more number of migrant workers and other vulnerable people get assisted from the available resources.

Q5. How can I contribute to this platform?

You can contribute by sharing your organization data in this platform. It is an open source and open data initiative. We welcome more and more state governments, NGOs and other actors to share the data available with them to enrich this platform. Please refer to our Data Policy and Terms of Use for reference.

Q6. Who is this data meant for?

It is meant for anyone offering relief and rehabilitation services to migrant workers and other vulnerable people during and after COVID-19 lockdown.

Q7. How do I use this data?

You can use the GIS portal for visualizing the available data and gather inferences to coordinate relief and rehabilitation measures during and after the national lockdown for India's migrant workers and other vulnerable population.
You can also download the data in an excel or PDF file format by making queries on the relevant parameters like location of shelters for migrants, support required by the migrant and other vulnerable populations, COVID-19 testing centers and quarantine facilities etc. The data also shows network of roads and highways, hospitals, schools and other such infrastructure details.

Q8. How can I use this available data in making informed decisions and address the crisis?

You can use this data for:

  1. Knowing where the affected population (migrant workers and other vulnerable people) are located presently
  2. Understanding what their exact needs are in their present location
  3. Knowing where the resource centres (hospitals, schools, quarantine centres etc) and resource organizations are with respect to the affected people
  4. Getting the contact information of the resource organizations and professionals who can be contacted for co-ordination and addressing the needs of the affected people in those geographies
  5. Matchmaking between the needs of the affected people and available resource/organizations

Q9. Where is the migrant worker data coming from?

The migrant worker data is being fetched in three ways:

  1. State Governments share location information of number of migrants from their states or in their states, where they are stranded and what problems they are facing in those states, along with contact information of the group leaders.
  2. CoAST partners will collate and provide data from locations they are present at.
  3. We are crowd-sourcing information on the platform itself thourgh online forms.

Q10. What are other vulnerable groups and why they need to be addressed?

The other vulnerable groups of people include senior citizens, disabled people, people below poverty line, pregnant women etc.

Q11. How can I contribute and share my data?

You can share your data on NGOs, Migrant Workers or Other Vulnerable People in these links:

Q12. What is the data policy?

You can view our data policy here.

Q13. Are there any restrictions on the use and download of the data?

Please refer to our Data Policy and Terms of Use for reference.