News: India has launched a one-of-its-kind e-digital wallet for disasters —Akshvi which allows communities to self-report their losses in any disaster.
About Akshvi Digital Wallet
- Akshvi is an acronym for Aapda Kshati Vivaran (Disaster Damages Description).
- It is a community-driven platform, created by SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) India.
- SEEDS aims to strengthen the resilience of 300 million climate risk-prone people in the country by 2030.
- Using this platform, the affected communities log their losses and assets every time they are faced with an incident (flood, drought, heatwave, landslide, lighting, hailstorm etc.) – regularly over a period of time.
- Pilot project: It is presently piloted in five districts of three states (Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and West Bengal).
- Working mechanism:
- Similar to digilocker, each household is given an E-Disaster Wallet for self-report their economic and non-economic losses.
- There are three ways to report this – i) an IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) helpline number, ii) a chatbot on WhatsApp, iii) assisted filling of data by a person.
- Benefits:
- The family will have a credible record of all their losses.
- Agencies will know exactly the losses and the needs of the people.
- Government agencies will have hyperlocal data on loss and damages
