Aarogya Setu – a digital aid launched on April 2, 2020, in the form of an app by the government of India in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose of this app is to track the spread of the pandemic across the country, identify its characteristic symptoms, and keep the public updated about the latest mapping and status of COVID-19. Its chief features include:
- Aim
- Availability
- Management
- Usage and Sections
- Response and Effect
- Criticism and Drawbacks
Aim of Aarogya Setu App
The objectives of this app include:
- Spread awareness regarding COVID-19.
- Make medical care services accessible to people all across the country.
- Share the best precautions and advises on how to maintain social distancing to avoid the spread of the pandemic.
- Makes available the data and case numbers across each region and calculates risk factors for each.
- Urges all citizens to follow the government set policies to battle the pandemic.
- Provides a platform for the application of an e-pass to use in emergency situations.
- The app offers a self-assessment test for the users.
- It declares the number of COVID-19 positive cases in a radius of 500 m, 1 km, 2 km, 5 km, and 10 km from the user.
- Ensures safety for members of the public while traveling via air, water, or land.
- Provides further information regarding various state helpline numbers, other toll-free numbers, and assigned testing centers.
App availability
- Aarogya Setu app is available in 12 different languages which include:
- Hindi
- English
- Tamil
- Telegu
- Kannada
- Malayalam
- Punjabi
- Bengali
- Odia
- Gujarati
- Marathi
- Assamese
- We can download the app on both iOS and Android systems.
- Downloading the app requires :
- Scanning the source code of the app which has been made public via the official website of the government of India.
- Directly installing the app from Google Play, App Store, KaiOS, or Aarogya Setu IVRS.
- It has a storage size of 4 MB.
- The app holds an ‘apache license 2’- a software which was established in January 2004.
- The app works on Bluetooth connections throughout due to which it is essential to switch on the Bluetooth of the device initially.
- On 29 April 2020 the central government declared it mandatory for all employees to download the app and use it – “Before starting for office, they must review their status on Aarogya Setu and commute only when the app shows safe or low risk”.
- The Union Home Ministry stated that the application is mandatory for all those residing in the COVID-19 containment zone.
Aarogya Setu App Management
- The Aarogya Setu app was created by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and is managed by them too.
- It has been written in the ‘JAVA’ and ‘KOTLIN’ computer languages.
- Bollywood celebrity Ajay Devgan is the brand ambassador of this app.
Usage and Sections of Aarogya Setu
- After downloading the app, the user must select a language to operate the app and must connect to the Bluetooth and Location settings on their devices.
- Next, they must register with their mobile number and enter the OTP after which they can start accessing the app.
- Aarogya Setu app has four major sections:
- User Status: This helps calculate the risk of the user developing the pandemic based on the data collected regarding the cases around them.
2. Self Assess: This makes the user aware of all the symptoms of the pandemic so that they can further self-check for themselves.
3. COVID-19 Updates: This section helps provide the data regarding all the local and central COVID case count across the various regions of the country.
4. E- Pass Integration: This allows for people to apply for the E-Pass, which allows them to travel around during lockdown situations.
- The app identifies hotspots and depicts them via mapping.
- The app is created on a base that can provide an ‘Application Programming Interface’ so that other computer programs, mobile applications, and web services can make use of the features and data available in Aarogya Setu.
App Response and Effect
- The app recorded more than 50 million installs, within the first 13 days of its launch.
- It recorded about 100 million installs within 40 days of its launch.
- It was also revealed that the app had been able to identify more than 3,000 pandemic hotspots in 3–17 days.
- The Aarogya Setu App broke the world record for the fastest – highest number of downloads received by an app after its launch.
- It has been applauded and appreciated by many as it has successfully been able to provide the public an overview of the pandemic spread across the country.
- It has also helped limit the spread of the pandemic to a certain extent.
Aarogya Setu App Criticism and Drawbacks
- Following the government’s declaration that it would be compulsory for all government and private employees to download the app, Congress opposition leader Rahul Gandhi termed the Aarogya Setu application as a -“sophisticated surveillance system”. However, ‘The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’ brushed these concerns away by asserting that Gandhi’s claims were false and that the app was being appreciated internationally.
- The Indian government, as well as the Aarogya Setu app developers, dismissed the claim of a French ethical hacker – Robert Baptiste who stated that the app had security issues.
- MIT researchers have questioned the user privacy of the app by rating it as a two-star app.
Conclusion
The Aarogya Setu app is an aspiring project by the government of India. It is a wise way to spread awareness regarding the state of the pandemic across the country. It enables the user to clearly know about the pandemic risk which motivates them to follow the instructions of the government.
Though the app is going through a tough phase of scrutiny, it has enabled the public to trust, support, and further cooperate more with the Indian government.