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More than a billion people across the world
live in underserved urban communities.
A large chunk of the people who live in these underserved communities
don't have an address.
If you don't have an address,
you can't get mail, health benefits or social benefits delivered to your home.
Hence, having an address is really really critical.
So, we actually came up with a digital addressing system
called Plus Codes.
Plus Codes is a system which is for the world.
It locates in exactly the same way
at any point on the planet,
the geocoordinates of a point.
But how to use this address and activate the Plus Codes.
Addressing the unaddressed had all the local expertise.
Addressing the unadressed is an NGO,
whose mission is to see that everybody in the world
has a chance of getting an address
and that's where our focus is right now.
And where we have started work
is in Kolkata in India.
I have lived here for twenty years.
There are about twenty-one houses in this compound,
and it's very hard.
Addresses are very important in our country,
especially in Kolkata.
It is very difficult,
if you have to ask somebody,
to find him.
The whole community has one address,
which is called Tangra.
Today, it's absolutely impossible for the postman
to deliver any kind of mail systems to the dwellings.
You have to realize that these places are really dense.
Some of these dwellings are only 3m², 4m² squared...
Some of the lanes are really narrow.
They are so narrow that even if you go sideways,
you still get stuck.
We had to come up with a solution,
which accurately determines where exactly the dwellings are located.
Hence Google created an application
where we can actually assign and provide a Plus Code as addresses at scale.
The operators that we have on the ground
are actually using the app,
and determining the exact location of these dwellings.
And recording it on the app itself.
At first, ATU staff go into the community,
and explain what we're doing.
We call it the sensitization process.
We say, "would you mind giving us permission for this?"
"Do you have any objection?"
Then, we have to implement this addressing system.
We accurately identified the GPS coordinates of the dwellings,
and we took those GPS coordinates
and converted them into a code.
I can put that code directly into Google Maps,
press a button, and off we go.
And it would be amazing
to be able to see where you are living
on a Google Map.
We realized that we can not only solve the problem in Kolkata,
but we actually can build an exemplar.
This solution can actually be replicated in other parts of India,
and other parts of the world.
So anybody can come and have a look at what we do,
meet our team on the ground,
see the methods that we use firsthand,
and copy them.
If you can imagine for the first time,
that a postman or a postwoman
comes up to your house and delivers mail directly to you.
That's really extraordinary.
People could open bank accounts,
they could start to get their Aadhaar cards,
they could get some of their social care
that they couldn't get before.
This Google Plus could give me the unique identity that I never had.
They have the dignity of life!
And people are registered.
Recognized!
You know?
People are happy.
Now we know that we belong to India,
and that we are really important people.