I hope India’s 911 version – 108 survives

EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute) has lately been in the news for the wrong reasons. Very few know what EMRI is about. I didn’t until a few days ago. But the irony is I should have heard about EMRI earlier, you will get to know why soon.

NRIs in the US know about the 911 emergency service (kids are told to call 911 if they’re in trouble!). Satyam Computers did get a lot of media coverage about sponsoring India’s very own 911 – dial 108. This phone number is good to know, and I hope you never have to use it (like insurance).

On November 16, 2008, my mom had a heart attack sometime in the night. Needless to say, we were scared. We had to rush her to the hospital, which was quite a distance from our house. My mom was very clear about not going to the hospital in the car. My dad wanted me to call 108 for the ambulance, and I dreaded the idea of taking my mom in one of those government ambulances (I am talking about those old ambulances we used to see on the roads earlier). My dad assured me these were good ones, despite being a ‘free service’.

I had read about the 108 service being launched in Hyderabad, but I wasn’t aware it was available in Bangalore. The 108 call center was very efficient and dispatched an ambulance to our house within seconds. But it took a while to reach our home as the driver had no clue of Bangalore roads 🙁 It finally reached our place, and my mom walked into the ambulance instead of getting onto a stretcher!

As soon as she got in, the driver told us, “I need someone to show me the directions to the hospital as I don’t know Bangalore.” The driver literally gave us a heart attack. She needed oxygen, and the ambulance attendant was getting instructions from the call center (or someone else) on what to do. Not a very pleasant situation, but no choice.

Luckily, it was a late Sunday evening, and there was hardly any traffic on our roads. After reaching the hospital, my nephew tipped the driver, but he was promptly refused.

My mom survived a very complex bypass surgery. She wouldn’t have survived if we hadn’t reached the hospital on time. I was deeply grateful to the 108 service for saving my mom’s life. After that, I was able to connect 108 to what I had read earlier, but surely EMRI is something I am reading about only now.

According to many reports, EMRI might have been used to divert some funds. Nobody knows the truth as of today, so better not to comment. The current AP CM YSR says, “What is so special about Satyam sponsoring the 108 service, when they were paying just 5% of the expenses?”. If the deal was so bad, why didn’t the State Governments take over the whole thing earlier?

Not sure where these investigations will lead us. But I sincerely pray we retain and grow the 108 service across India.

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