If ever you lose your way in Almora, make sure you ask for directions from a school student.
A year ago, Department of Science and Technology had provided 250 students in the area with hand-held computers and Global Positioning System (GPS) modules for collecting data in their neighbourhood. The students today presented the fruit of their labour before Union Minister Kapil Sibal.
‘‘When we went around with our instruments, asking people questions like what they did for a living or how many cows they kept, they would ask us why we were doing it. Our reply was, ‘at least, we can tell you where to go if you are lost’,’’ said Yamini Joshi, one the students.
And the results are a winner. The data collected since last September has the potential to revolutionise the entire developmental planning in the country. As the minister himself pointed out: ‘‘I can vouch for the fact that no government department, no patwari’s map, will have as much data on any area in the country as do these maps.’’
The students today presented a collection of digital maps for the Hawalbagh block of Almora district in Uttaranchal, with the minutest of details — including the name of the owner of the house, the number of inhabitants, their employment and income statistics, etc.
Some of the more ‘specialised’ maps even contained such information as the number of cattle in each house, the fuel used in the kitchen, availability of electricity, the sex-ratio in the household and even the migration figures along with reason for migration.
The city maps included figures on amount of garbage and sewage generated by each household, the availabitility of rainwater storage structures, piped water, among other things.
Sibal said though this was just an ‘‘empowerment exercise’’, he was all for putting the figures to good use. ‘‘This work is like the rudimentary form of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NDIS) that we have been pushing for. It is difficult to over-estimate the importance of such micro-level information or predict what impact it can have on the country’s development trajectory,’’ he said.
Sibal added that the President had even expressed a desire to see the project encompass 30,000 students next year.
Though the project was designed as a one-year programme, the students seem to be in no mood to surrender their instruments. ‘‘We are still collecting information and making more maps. When we are done, we’ll put it all up at a single place for all to access,’’ informed Shivani Varma, a student of Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Almora.