It has been over two weeks since the government announced lockdown across India, and the poor and migrant workers are the ones who are suffering from the lack of food and night shelter. To help them Google in partnership with the Indian Government has started surfacing locations of food shelters & night shelters on Google Maps, Search and Google Assistant, to help migrant workers & affected people across cities.
This feature is currently live in 30+ cities. Google said that it is working towards adding more locations, and will shortly roll this feature out in Hindi and other languages. Google will also add quick-access shortcuts that will appear below the search bar on the Google Maps app to access this easily.
Anal Ghosh, Sr. Program Manager, Google India, said:
As the COVID-19 situation develops, we are making a concerted effort to build solutions that help people during these times of need. Highlighting the locations of food and night shelters on Google Maps is a step to make this information easily available to the users in need, and ensure they can avail the food and shelter services being provided by the government authorities.