“Pratyaksh” An Innovative Approach for Streamlining field data Collection through Crowdsourcing Mobile App

Acquiring and sharing information using a smartphone has taken the era of communication and networking into a whole new level. Organisations and departments are using crowdsourcing tools to gather information about their respective investments into various projects for sustainable development.The ultimate goal set for various projects in the watershed management directorate is to develop an effective Monitoring Evaluation Learning and Development (MEL&D) system. Collection of field data for various projects has always been a tedious task which consumes a considerable amount of time and money. The concept of participatory data collection has provided an effective data collection approach. With the advent of mobile technology and mobile in “each hand” scenario, the data collection process has got a new dimension. An android based mobile solution named “Pratyaksh” is developed for field data collection to validate the structures constructed as a part of treatment of a Micro WaterShed (MWS), under different projects of the Watershed Management Directorate (WMD). The mobile solution has encouraged the project staff to overcome the hurdles encountered in data collection, data sharing and data storage. The department corroborated field data with geo tagged photographs collected from project area for monitoring & evaluation purpose.