Problems Follow India’s Virus Tracing App – By Pamposh Raina (US News) / June 8 2020
The government-produced coronavirus tracing app is unreachable to a majority of Indians and has stirred privacy fears.
GURUGRAM, India — In May domestic worker Husne Aara Bibi desperately approached one of her employers in the northern Indian outsourcing megacity of Gurugram, seeking a smartphone to download a government-developed contact-tracing and mapping mobile app tailored for the novel coronavirus.
Bibi’s husband needed to show proof through the app that he was at low risk of becoming infected by the virus to be able to enter the luxurious apartment complex where he had for years cleaned cars until the Indian government ordered a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people in March.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged citizens to use the mobile app Aarogya Setu. The government’s push in promoting the app went so far as to make its use mandatory; in one Indian state police even threatened prosecution for non-compliance.
The government’s official messaging touts the app as a reliable bodyguard. Lending support to that message are Indian movie stars, one of whom is featured in an ad for the app and popularized the tag line “Setu Mera Bodyguard,” Hindi for “Setu is my bodyguard.”
But the government push to use the mobile app is also stirring questions about its value. The app is tailored for smartphone use, and currently only about 500 million people in the country have such devices. Further, So far, about 124 million people – less than one-tenth of the country’s population – are registered as users of Aarogya Setu; leaving more than 90% of the population from the purview of the app.
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