Swachhata Bharat app shows citizen are driving up the cleanliness rankings

Swachhata Bharat

If you are happy with your city’s cleanliness and want it to be recognised, it might be a good idea to begin by downloading a government mobile phone application.

Citizen engagement appears to be driving national cleanliness rankings more than municipal claims and independent verifications, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of 20 cities in the 2017 Swachh Survekshan (Cleanliness Survey) report released by the ministry of urban development (MoUD).

The government evaluated cities’ performance on citizen engagement through a mobile application ‘Swachhata-MoUD’–which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store–for a maximum of 150 points of the total 600 points for “citizen engagement”.

Of the 20 cities that IndiaSpend studied, 13 scored 85 points and above in the “Swachhata App” sub-category. Nine of these saw an average rise of 10 ranks over 2016. The seven cities that scored 80 points and below fell 36 ranks behind, on average, the analysis showed.

“The Survekshan methodology needs a serious relook as it is rewarding cities with environmentally unsustainable practices and discouraging cities working towards behaviour change and local solutions,” Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based environmental think tank, was quoted as saying in this Financial Express report. Read More