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The Digital India Mission recently marked 10 years of implementation, driven by a vision to use technology to improve services in areas like education, health, and agriculture. Over the years, efforts like Aadhaar for digital identity and UPI for easy digital payments have played a key role in the mission. Many initiatives, such as Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Gramin and Jal Jeevan Mission, have also focused on using technology to plan and track the progress of services.

Such initiatives require a large quantum of data that acts as both the fuel and foundation for a mission as ambitious as Digital India. Data for welfare schemes, often collected at the last mile Gram Panchayat (GP), remains with key decision makers at the Union or the state levels. Examples include data collected for Centrally Sponsored Schemes, State Schemes and for calculating development progress by either Members of Parliament or district and state administrators. These are also used to calculate indices such as the Panchayat Advancement Index. 

Decentralised governments such as GPs rarely engage in deciding what data to collect and how to use it for hyperlocal development. Citizen-generated Data (CGD) initiatives, where local communities decide what to collect and use data for their development, remain untapped. This article explores the need, demonstrates examples, and presents pathways for GPs to adopt CGD for better governance. 

Why should GPs engage with Citizen-Generated Data More?

CGD can significantly enhance how GPs plan and implement solutions that are tailored to their needs. CGD has the scope to enhance the following:-

1. Improving understanding of hyperlocal issues such as the effect of increased extreme heat, safety of women and transgender residents, out-migration of labour or place-based availability of water. 
2. Designing need and place-based interventions - upon identifying challenges, appropriate schemes can be applied or new initiatives designed as per the GP’s needs.
3. Improving community participation in GPs by involving residents in deciding what data to collect, collection, and verification drives data for decision-making. This can feed into existing pathways for stronger self-governance such as conducting Ward and Gram Sabhas and planning Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDP).
4. Enhanced transparency and accountability by ensuring that Elected Representatives and civil servants are co-designing processes with residents as against functioning behind closed doors.   

How have CGD initiatives worked in the recent past?

Examples of such initiatives, while rare, are not completely unknown and have achieved success. Take the example of Bihar’s Shrirampur village in Sitamarhi district. A youth-driven civil society initiative, Gram Chetna Andolan (GCA), took notice of various infrastructural and environmental challenges such as the lack of dependable water sources, poor waste segregation among others. Through an intensive 8-hour survey, GCA volunteers collected household data on 118 community problems. Upon verifying the data, GCA presented the data to the GP members and called for Ward Sabhas to deliberate on the issues and identify solutions. Independently, GCA volunteers also took action by organising clean-up drives and door-to-door information campaigns to spread awareness of the role one can play in solving challenges around them. This marked the start of CGD-based decision-making to solve hyperlocal issues in Shrirampur. 

Various other CGD examples have emerged as reported by Samaaj Data platform, a repository of citizen sourced and verified data on climate and governance. Another example is that of civil society organisation Gram Vaani that collected over 143,000 voice records of citizen experiences in communities they engage in. Data was collected on vulnerable citizen experiences when they accessed services in villages across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. This was then used to enable better access directly by working with citizens and also sharing reports with the government to improve systems at scale. 

Away from villages, in cities too, we observe various examples that can be learnt from. In 2021, citizens mapped over 5,435 potholes in Bengaluru in 2021 for a case that the Karnataka High Court needed data on. This was supported by Karnataka State Legal Services Authority that collected CGD through coordination with local NGOs using a WhatsApp Chatbot. On the same issue specific to the city, more recently in 2025, a techie released a platform ‘blr-pothotles.pages.dev’ where citizens can report potholes or damaged roads by uploading geotagged images. Within just weeks, there are over 300 data points on the platform that civic authorities can use to repair roads. 

How can these be replicated in other GPs?

A common thread through these examples is that of coordinated efforts that were spearheaded by local civil society initiatives. By collecting and verifying data independently, they added to the tools necessary to solve hyperlocal problems. Through inclusive efforts coupled with accessible technology, initiatives were able to understand, plan, and solve local problems with GPs and other local authorities. 

GPs have the opportunity to now take the lead with converging efforts for hyperlocal problem solving by using CGD. While still exploratory, this would involve the following:

1. Defining challenges that require CGD - GPs need to first understand where survey data can be useful through CGD as not all challenges need survey data to be solved
2. Bringing together different actors - GPs are well positioned to bring together various actors such as citizens and organised civil society initiatives, other departments, and private actors where necessary too. A GP can tap into existing platforms to learn from other ideas that have worked, instead of reinventing the wheel when required. 
3. Planning and implementing CGD collection, verification and use - through simple project management tools, GPs can engage in end-to-end collection, verification, and use for the challenges identified
4. Storing data securely - this would be a critical step to ensure data leaks are avoided 
5. Planning for other such initiatives - once processes are tried and tested, GPs can continue to use them to collect data on other challenges that require citizen inputs

These initiatives, in line with the Digital India mission, build trust with local communities that is essential for responsive governance at the last mile. Although there are multiple ways to integrate CGD into existing initiatives like GPDP preparation and Ward and Gram Sabhas, it remains to be seen whether it will become a part of the mainstream agenda of the Digital India mission for various ministries that work with local governments. 

The author is grateful to Avani Kapur for editorial inputs. Cover photo credits: Wikimedia Commons.