Digitalizing South India
The study of social change in developing countries is often hampered by the lack of easy access to available data. In India, in spite of a large and diversified system of data collection, identifying the available information as well as locating the corresponding publications can prove itself extremely difficult. Geographical information is even harder to come by since reliable maps are often not available. In response to this problem, we decided to launch the SIPIS (South Indian Population Information System), a project aimed at bringing together a large array of social and economic data on CD-ROMs. (Fig.1).
fig 1 COURTESY OF SIPIS
* By CHRISTOPHE Z. GUILMOTO
The data was assembled in the course of a research programme in demography (the South India Fertility Project), that had been initiated in Pondicherry in 1998 with support from the Wellcome Trust (London), the French Institute (Pondicherry), and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (Paris). The original idea was to build a single database of detailed village and town characteristics to study the dynamics of social transformations. It was decided later to incorporate this information in computerized maps, which meant computing the geographical locations of all the localities in South India. For that purpose, maps from all possible sources were collected and an original geographical information system (GIS) was created. This GIS comprises localities, as well as other important geographical features such as elevation and drainage (rivers, water bodies, etc.). The road and railway networks were added, as well as administrative and urban boundaries.
This project met with many technical difficulties, often related to the lack of appropriate base maps to position geographical objects. For example, many villages enumerated by the census - especially in tribal or hilly areas - are not shown on any map. Moreover, South India is changing rapidly with new roads being planned and built and with a permanent process of administrative redistricting. New districts are being created while the size of urban areas continues to increase. As the rhythm of change in India is at present more rapid than that of data acquisition, the resulting GIS from our project is not a final electronic atlas.
Although available data had originally been destined for various scholars working on topics as diverse as irrigation, fertility decline, female infanticide, or urban-rural interaction, we decided to publish our spatialized database in a CD-ROM format in order to make the data and the maps available to the larger audience - from students to policy makers, NGOs, and government officials. The United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA, Delhi) agreed to fund this dissemination project in 2000. The idea was to allow users to consult the data through maps with a user-friendly interface. The first pilot SIPIS that has just been published by the French Institute covers 16,000 villages and 450 towns of Tamil Nadu State, along with contiguous areas of Pondicherry Union Territory. This is a huge database as more than 160 variables are provided for all localities.
Data and maps from the CD are accessible to users through a customized software that includes the most common functions of mapping applications: zooming and moving around the map; selection of separate layers of information for display; data retrieval; location of selected localities; and classification of localities by specific values, among other things. Trend maps for some important characteristics have also been prepared using powerful geostatistical techniques. Maps can also be saved as projects or as image files, as well as printed. As a software, SIPIS is very simple to use and requires no specific training.
Most data have been derived from the last Census of India. Some are absolute figures (e.g. population), while others are indicators computed from raw values (e.g. percentages, ratios, etc.). Domains covered include demography (population, households, children, etc.), social and cultural data (Dalits, literacy, etc.), occupational classification (in eleven categories), schooling and health infrastructure, land use and irrigation, and communication and transportation facilities. Information on urban units is also provided (demography, social and cultural data, occupational classification). This rich information database documents most essential dimensions of social and economic development down to the lowest administrative level.
On the figure [fig.1] shown here, we can see an old map from the eighteenth century along with a SIPIS map of the same area in Tamil Nadu (the original SIPIS map is in colour). The earlier map was published by Guillaume de l'Isle in Amsterdam in 1723. His cartography was later criticized for seriously inaccurate toponomy as 'scarce[ly] any of the Names of People or Places found in Mr. Will. Del Isle's map of Ceylon were known in the Indies'.1
fig 2 COURTESY OF SIPIS
The other image [Fig. 2] shows a typical SIPIS screen with several menus and buttons allow the user to edit, save, or print the map. The map corresponds to the central part of Tamil Nadu, a region that includes the entire valley of the Kaveri River. Cities, towns, and the main rivers are shown on this map. Also visible are taluk (county) boundaries as well as district names. The thousands of rural villages are simply too numerous to be shown on the same map. Taluks have been further classified by the average level of irrigation (shown on a grey scale). The delta of the Kaveri River, starting from Tiruchchirapalli -'Trichirapali' on de l'Isle's map- down to the sea, is clearly distinguished by its maximal level of irrigation. An endless number of equivalent maps may be prepared by combining several information layers and selecting the desired scale and focus of the map.2
A source of disappointment was our inability to develop SIPIS in Tamil, the official language of the region covered by the first volume. We discovered to our regret that no official listing of village names in Tamil was readily available. As to the list of village names in English, the ambiguous transliteration of some Tamil consonants and vowels into English prevented us from doing a systematic 'transliteration' into Tamil letters. We also learnt that writing a software with menu in Tamil could be a very difficult exercise as computer programmes have to be written in Latin script. To close this chapter, should I add that Tamil characters and their corresponding computer codes are not yet standardized? As Tamil Nadu is probably India's most advanced region in the information technology revolution, it is to be hoped that these gaps will soon be ingeniously filled and that the next SIPIS will be first published in Tamil.
The GIS was primarily conceived for research purposes. As a matter of fact, not until the availability of this data could the detail of spatial heterogeneity in South India be examined at a micro-scale, using available variables to describe migration, irrigation, female discrimination, or access to modern amenities. Some important development variables can serve to highlight the contours and mechanisms of social change, especially as strong spatial patterns are often discernible. Diffusion processes are indeed responsible for the specific geographical patterning of transformations of the social, demographic, and economic structure. However, the SIPIS project also illustrates how research materials can be fruitfully shared by a large variety of users, especially when it is made available with user-friendly computer tools. *
Notes
1. See Gole, Susan, Early Maps of India, New Delhi: Sanskriti and Arnold Heinemann: (1976).
2. Guilmoto, C.Z., and S. Oliveau, with S. Vingadassamy and R. Amuda, 'South Indian Population Information System, Volume I: Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry', CD-ROM published by the French Institute: Pondicherry (2000).
For more information:
SIPIS
Department of Social Sciences
French Institute
PB 33 Pondicherry 605001 INDIA
E-mail: ifpssc@vsnl.com
Http://members.rediff.com/sipis
Christophe Z. Guilmoto is a demographer working at the Institut de recherche pour le développement, Paris, France.
E-mail: ifpssc@vsnl.com