City Pulse

Many Mumbaikars used social media to reach out to fellow city dwellers offering shelter during the deluge that drowned the city few months back, are now a harassed lot.

As the incessant downpour submerged Mumbai on August 29 and left people stranded across the city, hashtags #MumbaiRains and #RainHosts surfaced on Facebook and Twitter. Well-meaning citizens put up posts, inviting those stuck in their area to spend the night in their houses.

While this helpful spirit of Mumbaikars made headlines across the country and even abroad, its side effects are now haunting many who shared their phone numbers. 

“I have got around 900 calls since then, with people asking about train timings and what not! We helped many people on August 29 but now many of us have been forced to change our cell numbers,” said a frustrated Ankit Jain, a businessman. 

He said that he and some of his friends had offered help in their WhatsApp groups, seeking to aid the group members in need. However, these messages went viral as they were "randomly shared" on Twitter and Facebook. Now they keep getting flooded with calls even though floodwater has long receded.

Sanchit Dhanuka, who runs a restaurant in Mira Bhayander, had also shared his phone number on social media, offering free food. He said he kept getting calls from all the parts of the country. These callers would want to know how bad the rain was and seek updates.

He said a community he's a part of has quite a few people with similar stories; they shared their number to offer help but ended up getting heavily spammed. He said some women were getting prank calls and were harassed to an extent that they had to change their number.

While the aftermath of their helpful gesture has left them with a bitter taste in the mouth, the good samaritans are happy they were able to help in the hour of need. Dhanuka did get calls from many genuine seekers, whom he helped find shelter in nearby gurudwaras and other places. 

Crucial help

With the city under siege and roads turning into canals, those who were outdoors or in office found themselves stuck. The magnitude of deluge made many of those in their homes open up their doors to strangers who were stranded nearby.

The last time Mumbai was submerged like this, in July 2005, Facebook was barely a year old and still finding its feet. Neither Twitter nor smart phones existed. This time around, the benefit of being connected through internet enabled citizens galvanise much support. People shared messages on WhatsApp to help those in need. Telephone numbers were announced over FM radio too.

In no time, a Google Docs spreadsheet was set up. It automatically collated every Tweet that bore the hashtags #MumbaiRains and #RainHosts, creating a common database that stranded people could look up for seeking shelter. Realising the utility of its Safety Check feature, which enables people in a disaster zone to mark themselves safe on Facebook, the social networking giant last month launched a full-fledged Crisis Response Hub with all its emergency features in one place.

Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Rashmi Karandikar told 101Reporters that during the rains, they received 45,000-odd tweets for help and they responded to as many as possible. He cited how a girl tweeted that her 70-year-old grandmother was stranded in a local train and the police went and rescued her.

“The medium of conversation was social media. Mumbai Police encouraged people who were tweeting with #RainHosts to guide them to nearest police stations. This time, social media played a very important role. It took on a community service role," said Sunchika Pandey, consultant (content and creative), Mumbai Police and the police commissioner.

Much like the 2015 floods in Chennai, when netizens mobilised support and donation drive online, internet played a crucial role during this year's Mumbai flood too. From food, shelter to phone recharges, netizens helped fellow residents during the time of crisis and natural calamities.  

When a crisis hits, the demand for information increases, and conversations speed up. But the challenge is to be cautious and not post anything speculative so that people in crisis do not panic. And to also, once the situation stabilises, respect the help one received and not bother the ones who helped.

Picture Courtesy: socialsamosa.com