Technology for Information Democracy: Case of GIS Enabled Entitlement Tracking System

Around eighty million households in the country suffer serious deprivation in India. The Union and State Governments of India have introduced various social security schemes and programmes intended for the well-being of these marginalized sections of the country. While most evaluations of the implementation of schemes blame their unsatisfactory performance on leakages in the system, lack of information concerning these schemes is also a major factor behind the same. Congruent with rapid developments and expanse of information and communication technologies (ICT), the world has witnessed a strong inclination towards informed societies. Governments across the world, including the Indian Government, started leveraging ICT to improve their public outreach. However, varying degrees of digital development, access to ICT, differentiated informational requirements and the digital divide have posed challenges to the same. Taking cognizance of these challenges as well as India’s rising Internet user base, many informational platforms like Haqdarshak, Schemopedia and India Iris have been developed in recent times. The GIS-Enabled Entitlement Tracking system is a similar effort undertaken by the Foundation For Ecological Security in association with the Ministry of Rural Development India and United Nations Development Programme to promote information democracy. The platform enables better first mile (usually termed as the last mile) delivery of social security schemes through a strategic mix of online and offline activities like a collation of information about benefits, eligibility criteria as well as concerned authorities related to various state and centrally sponsored schemes, capacity building, promotion of local leadership, etc.