The Chennai rains have brought one very important area of focus. The need to keep the documents digitalized. In our recent interview with about 120 displaced people, nearly 70 % ( seventy percent) worriedly mentioned that their children’s school records were affected. Many of them said that their important documents were hurriedly bundled into plastic folders and put into the lofts, or Suitcases, but then the swirling waters did cause very anxious moments. One important learning from the current crisis is that we need to keep the documents source intact. While it may be impossible to put all documents into a locker, it is possible to digitalize these documents and keep them into a locker in form of a hard disk drive.
Digitalization is a simple exercise. Sort important documents, education, key government papers like Passport, Driving License, Adhaar Card, Bank documents, savings documents, property papers etc., need to be scanned and put into relevant folders. When in need, we can always print out these documents instead of photo copying them, but more importantly keep records intact. Hard disk is a necessary gift you can give people you love and they will remember this gift for ever. Time to act. Will you. ?
