In any project, having Geo-referenced maps and Geo-tagged service delivery points increases the efficacy of the system, exponentially. It leads to immediate explicit knowledge about the location of the service delivery points and shows us whether the service delivery point is in hard to reach area, hilly or riverine, with or without Road connectivity. However, apart from this obvious advantage, geo-tagging opens up a number of avenues viz., highlighting the errors, getting advantage from merging and looking at secondary data set and most importantly reaching out to every individual on Real-time or near Real-time.
For example, in the context of Anganwadi Centres Geo-tagging, if we look at the immediate advantage, we may locate all the AWCs which are in remote or difficult locations. Attached with satellite image, it also tells us whether AWCs are serving all the hamlets in the remote area. Which are the un-served areas? Do we have any overlapping? What should be the ideal location of a medical camp? Where are the health facilities for the children? Where should we set up our Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres?
Finally, once we have located every AWC, we may dynamically tag the nutritional status of every child and filter the severely underweight children for more focused intervention. Clusters of high-malnutrition-burdened AWCs/villages may be made visible for focused action plan. Experience show that this act alone lowers the morbidity and mortality of U-5 children to a great extent.
Similarly, in the context of planning (e.g. requirement of new schools as per RTE Act, requirement of new Sub Health Centres as per Population norm of GoI), Geo-tagging of existing service delivery centres (viz. Schools / Sub Health Centres) is a MUST for evidence based planning. Based on this mapping, proposed locations of new set-ups (viz. school / sub health centre) can be easily identified with proper evidence.
Riddhi has developed a simple Android mobile based Geo-tagging app which is being used by various government departments in different sectors (viz. Education, ICDS, Health, Panchayat, Rural Development, Transport etc.). Riddhi’s Geo-tagging app is a tool to improve planning, monitoring and overall program performance in any sector.