Sahayak (सहायक) - Rural Assistance App 🇮🇳

Sahayak (Helper) is an Android application designed to help users in rural areas quickly find and navigate to nearest essential public services. It features a simple, bilingual (Hindi/English) interface optimized for ease of use.

📱 Features

• Essential Services Locator: One-tap access to find the nearest:
  • 🚌 Bus Stop (बस स्टॉप)
  • 🏥 Hospital (अस्पताल)
  • 🏛️ Government Office (सरकारी कार्यालय)
  • 🌾 Ration Shop (राशन की दुकान)
  • 👮 Police Station (पुलिस स्टेशन)
• Gantavya Search (गंतव्य खोज): Search for any specific destination using text or Voice Search 🎙️.
• Turn-by-Turn Navigation: Seamlessly integrates with Google Maps for directions.
• Accessibility First:
  • 🗣️ Text-to-Speech (TTS): Reads out buttons and results in Hindi/English for users who cannot read the screen.
  • 🌐 Bilingual UI: All text is displayed in both English and Hindi.
• Safety & Connectivity:
  • 📍 Share Location: Quickly share your live location link via WhatsApp or SMS.
• Recent Searches (अभी की खोजें): Saves your search history locally for quick access later.
• Resilient Design: Includes "Retry" mechanisms for unstable rural networks.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Language: Kotlin
• UI Toolkit: Jetpack Compose (Material 3)
• Architecture: MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel)
• Networking: Retrofit & Gson
• Location Services: Google Play Services (FusedLocationProvider)
• Maps & Data: Google Maps Intent & Google Places API
• Asynchronicity: Kotlin Coroutines & Flows
• Persistence: SharedPreferences

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

1. Android Studio Ladybug or newer.
2. A Google Cloud Project with the Places API (New) enabled.
3. An API Key from Google Cloud.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/Sahayak.git

2. Open in Android Studio.

3. Configure API Key:

   • Create a file named local.properties in the root directory (if it doesn't exist).
   • Add your Google Maps API Key:

     MAPS_API_KEY=AIzaSy...YourKeyHere...

4. Build and Run:

   • Connect a physical device or use an emulator with Google Play Services.
   • Grant Location Permissions when prompted.

📸 Screenshots

(Add your screenshots here)

🤝 Contribution

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and create a pull request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.