************************************************************************* SOFTWARE... TO THE RESCUE OF PARCHED INDIAN VILLAGERS ************************************************************************* Just think of the potential of a software that allows users to create an interactive water-map of the village. This means, villagers would be better equipped to cope with drought. Thanks to IT (information technology). Called Jal-Chitra, this software has been developed by Jaipur's Ajit Foundation, in close collaboration with the Barefoot College of Tilonia. Says Ajit Foundation's Vikram Vyas: "The advent of Personal Computer together with the development and expansion of Internet has provided us with a unique opportunity to bring the tools of scientific modelling and computation to rural development." One "immediate area" where such tools can make a tangible contribution, he argues, is in the process of draught-proofing the villages lying in the arid and semi-arid regions of the developing world. How is this done? An estimate of the monthly water demand and the monthly water availability from various sources is the starting point. Then comes the question of allocation of available water. Likewise, a water-budget can be created. Solutions can range from water conservation, to the development of new water sources or water storage systems, where possible. Or even getting in water from external sources. Villagers need to balance between underground water and rainwater harvesting systems. Once done, Jal-Chitra software aims at helping villagers to take advantage of information and communication technologies to exercise their right to manage their own water sources. Jal-Chitra basically creates an interactive water-map of the village, enables the community to keep records of the amount of water available from each water source,can record water quality testing, lists maintenance work done and required, estimates water demand, generates future monthly water budgets (based on past records), and shows the amount of community need met through rainwater harvesting systems. FREDERICK NORONHA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> recently interviewed Vikram Vyas of The Ajit Foundation, who created the software. Excerpts from the interview: ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: What has been the response to the software so far? ***************************************************************************** The response form the organisation which are familiar with ICT (information and communication technologies) has been very positive. Particular heartening was the number of inquires and messages of encouragement that I have received from the voluntary organisations working in Pakistan. ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: Has it been implemented in the field? If so, where? ***************************************************************************** Hopefully Jal-Chitra will be implemented in number of villages where the Barefoot College of Tilonia in North India works. We are in the process of translating the users manual into Hindi. That is the bottleneck right now. ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: What about regionalising the software, in other Indian (or other) languages? ***************************************************************************** I think that is a very important and urgent need. I am trying to at least have a Hindi version based on Susha fonts (one of the popular fonts used for the Hindi language). ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: What potential do you see for it? Could it be applicable to other regions of the globe? ***************************************************************************** I think Jal-Chitra can be used in any village which is in the arid or semi arid region of developing world. The greatest potential is that it will enable local democratic institutions, like panchyats (local village councils in India), to make more informed decisions regarding their own water sources. I think of it as a small tool helping realise Mahatma Gandhi's dream of Swaraj (independence or self-rule at the rural level). ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: What are the further areas of development you plan? ***************************************************************************** Jal-Chitra has potentialities of many further developments including use of satellite photographs and more sophisticated in-build models, perhaps based on neural-nets. I am looking for other people, software developers, to help me with this. I have been away from physics for too long and would like to return to it and spend most of my professional time teaching and doing research in physics. So further development of Jal-Chitra has to become a collaborative effort. Also, I am waiting for the response from the actual users. ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: Would you prefer an open-source pattern of development? ***************************************************************************** I would love to port Jal-Chitra to Linux. The difficulty for a non-professional programmer like me is writing some thing as complex as Jal-Chitra in X-window environment is, well, non-trivial! Also the GIS support for Jal-Chitra comes through an active-X component, Map-Objects, MapObjects is only available for Windows. I am sure there must be an open source GIS that can be used. I am not aware of it. In any case my dream is to have a full suite of software like Jal-Chitra, SimTanka available on Linux. I would be great if open software movement in India can help me with this. ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: How the idea for this software struck you? ***************************************************************************** Jal-Chitra's genesis was in my attempt to convince organisations like SWRC-Tilonia (in North India) to use Sim-Tanka which I had developed before (incidentally a better version of SimTanka, SimTanka 2.0 is nowavailable). I found that SimTanka was not being used and I was trying to understand why. While talking with my friend Laxman Singh of Barefoot College, Tilonia, we started drawing a map of Tilonia on the ground with a stick -- indicating where the various sources were ... from various such discussions and realising that a village does not use water source piece wise but looks at all the sources together lead to the idea of Jal-Chitra. Other very important influence was Gandhi's philosophy of Swaraj. During that time I was reading the letter and dialogs between Gandhi and Tagore compiled in the book "Mahatma and the Poet" that debate had indirect but very important influence on the development of Jal-Chitra. ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: What has been the history, in brief, since the launch of the software? ***************************************************************************** Since the release of Jal-Chitra the Ajit Foundation had a workshop on the use of Jal-Chitra in Bikaner. The workshop was very useful in pointing out two important issues. Firstly, the need for the Hindi version of the users manual and ideally a Hindi version of the software. And, secondly, the need to incorporate Jal Chitra with formal or informal village educational systems. These are the issues we are working on. ***************************************************************************** QUESTION: Can you tell us of some interesting responses of users or field-level persons who encountered the same. ***************************************************************************** The most encouraging response was during a work shop on Jal Chitra in Tilonia were many women, who could not even write, were present. One of the woman worker of SWRC-Tilonia, Lalita, who was demonstrating Jal-Chitra said that it was easy to use. A old woman who had never used a computer said "Oh! it is easy for you because you have been to school" so Lalita asked her to come to the computer and the old woman actually used the mouse to draw the out line of Tilonia - not an accurate map but a start ... (ENDS) FOOTNOTE: Vikram Vyas can be contacted at The Ajit Foundation, 396 Vasundhara Colony, Tonk Road, Jaipur 302 018 India Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
