The very factors that make housing societies great places to live renders them highly susceptible to the virus. When the first lockdown happened in March 2020, a multitude of precautions was taken by resident welfare associations (RWAs). Clubhouses were shut down, swimming pools closed, all gatherings discouraged, visitors and daily help of all kinds banned, even lifts were turned off in a few societies.
A year on, the risks of the pandemic remain, but many of the precautions have disappeared. While there are several reasons for their retreat, technology has been a major contributor, with community management apps at the centre of the effort.
Creating a digital safety net
In June 2020, many societies faced a dilemma: whether to let daily help in or not. While many residents remained sceptical, others were unable to go on without their domestic helpers. This caused a difficult situation for RWAs until a technology solution was made available via community management apps. Since then, residents have been able to stay informed about the mask and temperature status of their visitors and run a daily check to identify whether their maids or other daily help are travelling from containment zones, thereby lowering the risk of visitors.
Later in the year, when governments permitted home quarantine for those with mild cases of the virus and domestic/international travellers, these apps equipped societies with the ability to manage all the needs of isolating residents, from disposing of their waste to handing over their deliveries with the correct precautions in place.
Societies that use these apps have also been able to securely manage deliveries, as parcels left at the gate can only be retrieved once the code is shared with the security guard.
Returning to normalcy
Similarly, the ability to limit the number of people in the clubhouse at any given time ensures that there is no crowding, make all bill payments via the app, conduct society elections and much more via apps have given a digital safety net to housing societies during these times.
Given that it still remains unknown how long the pandemic will last, the availability of such solutions has allowed housing societies that use them to have some semblance of normalcy much sooner than expected and with confidence in their decisions.
Technology has changed the way communities cope with the pandemic. It’s worth noting that these solutions aren’t just being adopted by modern gated communities, but even smaller cooperative societies are adopting such innovative solutions. In the post-Covid world, it’s the easiest way for gated communities of all sizes to minimise the virus spread.
This article is contributed by Deepika, Senior Product Manager, MyGate.
(The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of RoofandFloor)