Donation-based crowd funding gets boost in NE

From Our Special Correspondent
 
GUWAHATI: Bangalore-based crowd funding platform, Milaap has observed that donations for medical cases in North East have increased substantially with Assam alone witnessing a three-fold hike in less than two years.
“Not only have the total donations for fundraisers from Assam grown from more than Rs 1 crore to over Rs 3 crore in just two years, but the overall number of fundraisers has grown as well and almost doubled over the last one year. This definitely means that more people are now picking the faster, digital route to get and give help during emergencies,” Mayukh Choudhury, CEO and co-founder, Milaap, told reporters here on Tuesday.
In the past two years, funds raised for North East, including Assam, through the platform are Rs 4.72 crore, and 88 per cent of this is for medical needs.
The total number of fundraisers from North East, including Assam, is almost 2000 during the period.
Till date, people have given Rs 700 crore (USD 100 million) through the platform, which is South Asia’s largest, to help during medical emergencies.
“A fundraiser set up during the Assam floods is the highest from the state. Even in 2019 over 70 people set up fundraisers to help Assam recover from floods, and more than Rs 40 lakh was collected to provide help to hundreds of affected families,” Choudhury said.
Another interesting observation is that nearly 94 per cent of these funds are for medical needs or emergencies. “This means that more people are helping others get quality medical care for a sudden emergency, more people are finding help online to get the best treatment for their loved ones, and people have donated more than Rs 3 crore to help other people have a better chance to survive a deadly condition,” he added.