TRANSFORMING RURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH OPEN DATA KIT (ODK): APPLICATIONS AND IMPACT

Country for training, research and consultancy in rural development. With the support of OSGeo, a global non- profit organisation supporting open-source geospatial software, and its India chapter, NIRDPR has initiated using the Open Data Kit (ODK) in research studies and projects. The objective of using ODK in NIRDPR is to save cost, time, and effort in research studies using a reliable, open- source, and easy-to-understand mobile-based data collection tool. Researchers at NIRDPR are using ODK in key thematic areas like rural housing, rural roads, skill, sanitation, etc, under various relevant flagship schemes of the Ministry. NIRDPR completed many studies with the help of ODK-based field data collection and aggregation. NIRDPR is an ideal organisation for propagating ODK and other open-source tools to the grassroots level for societal benefits. It is expected to adopt ODK 2.x tool suit for future improvements over some present constraints.