Village level information system – a tool for decentralized planning at district level in India

Geographical Information Systems and the underlying Spatial Data Infrastructures have potential to assist in planning, monitoring and exchange of information between various agencies in Rural Development administration. The paper describes the present decision making process and the rural informatics situation in Indian districts. A study was undertaken in a tribal-oriented and rural district in India to demonstrate the integration of village-level spatial and non-spatial data into a useful tool, called ‘VLlS’ (Village-Level Information System), for decentralized planning. This simple and robust tool will assist the decision-makers to generate various ecological and socio-economic views for identifying candidate villages for rural watershed management schemes (prescriptive and executive level planning). The paper also envisages future development and usefulness of this community-level GIS tool for grass-root planning.