Class V student develops app to help locate blood donors during emergencies
A Class V student from the city has developed a mobile application aimed at connecting blood donors and recipients during medical emergencies, inspired by a personal experience during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Tapaswi, a 10-year-old student, was deeply affected by the difficulties her family faced when her grandmother required O-positive blood during a critical illness. Despite efforts to arrange donors, lockdown restrictions made it difficult to secure timely assistance, and her grandmother passed away. The incident left a lasting impression on her and motivated her to work on a solution to address such emergencies.
According to her family, she later questioned why essential services could be accessed online but not blood donation. This thought gradually evolved into the idea of developing a digital platform to bridge the gap between donors and patients.
With guidance from her parents, teachers, and uncle Mallikarjuna Rao, Tapaswi spent the past year learning programming languages, including C, Python, and Java, and developed an application named “Suraksha”.
The app enables users to register as blood donors or recipients and facilitates quick connections during emergencies. It also provides contact details of nearby ambulance and laboratory services. In addition, users can share audio, video, text messages, and medical reports with doctors to seek guidance.
To further enhance her skills, she enrolled in online training programmes conducted by GITAM University under its young entrepreneur initiative. Although the minimum eligibility age was 12, she was allowed to participate after impressing the selection panel with her presentation.
She is also associated with the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub and the Women Entrepreneurs Society, where she continues to develop her technical skills. She is currently working on integrating artificial intelligence into the application.
Tapaswi aspires to become both a doctor and an entrepreneur in the future.