This Indore-based platform helps you donate clothes, food, and other essentials, and delivers them to those in need

A lot of unused items - be it food or clothes - often gets us worried on how to dispose them. Indore-based NGO Daanpatra has come forward to take care of it in a useful and sustainable way.

Started in 2018 by siblings Yash Gupta and Akansha Gupta, Daanpatra is an online platform that collects donations of all sorts - clothes, toys, books, shoes, utensils, electronic items, furniture, and other items, which is basically anything except cash - from the donors’ doorstep and ensures these reach the people in need.

According to Yash, Daanpatra, which offers this service for free, has so far helped more than 11.5 lakh needy families, more than 70,000 Indore residents have joined this platform, and over 5,000 volunteers are connected to this platform.

“There is nothing useless. It is necessary that we should know how the waste material can be put to use. For those who throw away old stuff as waste, Daanpatra will be an inspiration on how we marry technology and charity. Millions of people can be helped by recycling old stuff and their life can be improved,” says Yash.

How it started?

Yash got the idea during his cousin’s wedding in 2018 when a lot of food was leftover despite a large number of people attending the function.

“Nobody knew what to do with the food. We thought of distributing the food among the destitute and hungry people in the city. After seeing success in this work, we thought why not make an app through which people can get things they need,” says 18-year-old Yash Gupta.

Yash says that in the beginning, the app was made for delivering only surplus food. However, he soon realised that food is something everyone prioritises and works for anyway. It is the other essentials that often comes as secondary needs.

Later, along with food, they started providing clothes, grains, toys, etc., to the needy. Today, with the help of Daanpatra app, the team collects unwanted materials from houses and delivers them to those in need for free of cost.

According to Yash, “We are a free platform where no money is taken from anyone. Everyone works in their own way -- some through petrol pumps, some from their vehicles, some by giving their time. Other expenses are covered by avwebworld, a software company which has invested some part of its earnings in Daanpatra,” explains Yash.

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Helping the needy

More than 50,000 city dwellers have been connected with the Daanpatra app in a year, and so far it has helped about three lakh destitute people.

“The special thing is that all types of people -- businessmen, students, and professionals -- are connected with Daanpatra and are helping the poor to bring a smile on their face,” Yash explains.

Early this month, Daanpatra was even awarded the Certificate of Commitment for Social Work by the "World Book of Records”.

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How it works?

People from Indore as well as about 700 families from abroad are donating items via Daanpatra. Any person can donate goods sitting at home by just making a phone call or by raising a request through the app.

On receiving the request, the team goes to people’s home and collects the goods within seven days, which is recycled and sent to the needy families.

The platform also uploads the photo and video of the receiver on its social media pages so that whoever has donated the goods can see to which needy family or person their goods has reached.

Yash says that his team has been working non-stop even during the Coronavirus pandemic. He adds that 50,000 needy families were given rations during the lockdown purely through donations.

The volunteers associated with the team say, if we are taking something from the society, then what are we returning to the society? By getting access to such a platform, it has become very easy to help the needy and we all must join this initiative and come forward to help.

Further, on the occasion of Diwali and with the aim of providing help to the families affected by the pandemic, more than 5,000 volunteers of the organisation helped by delivering essential items to about 2.5 lakh needy families in a single day. For this, the name of "Daanpatra" has been recorded in the ‘Exclusive world record’.

The team, which currently operates in and around Indore, wishes to expand to more cities in the future.