Equi-City to develop mobile app for monitoring of municipal services

It is estimated that one-third of Nagpur city’s population lives in slums spread across the city and form more than 300 slum pockets. In terms of addressing citizen’s grievances, there is no monitoring or evaluation system to track the status of the key services or to track the status of complaints. Hence, complaints are not answered within the prescribed time.
This Municipal Rating System will enhance citizen participation and effectiveness in local decision making and policy making while at the same time improves citizens’ knowledge of local administration (LA). It is expected that communities and citizens are interested in engaging with the LA and readily take up the citizens rating system to promote efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery.
As a part of the Municipal Rating System, a community scorecard and citizen scorecard will be developed which will capture some of the questions that seek to answer a) citizens’ views and experiences of service delivery, b) variations in service delivery and provision, c) efficiency in service delivery, d) relationship between consumer satisfaction and perceptions of local governance, and e) remedial measures to improve service delivery and local governance. IT based feedback systems (Equi-City Mobile App) will feed into strengthening the monitoring and evaluation tools.

Objective of the Equi-City Mobile App
A Mobile app with web based backend that will enable to capture real time survey data. It will provide a platform to citizens to feed the real-time data of different questionnaire based on the options.
The proposed app will ramp up time for fast data collection which will help Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to get accurate data with reports to analyze citizen’s perception based on service quality.
The purpose of developing this app is to capture real-time data across city area from citizens for effective monitoring and evaluation of shortcomings in service delivery and promote effective decision making. The app will also act as a bridge to pass the information in real time from citizens to NMC authorities. The app will be highly effective and should reduce the reporting time and improve the quality of reports being generated.
Some of the envisioned outcomes are:

• Improvement in real-time monitoring process of various services
• Centralised dashboard at Ward and Zone Level
• Ensuring accountability of real data
• Transparency in record keeping.
• Creation of digital database of works done as per the requirement of the project

The best performing Zones and Wards will be further encouraged through Urban Awards Ceremony.

Empowering youth through IEC activities on water & sanitation in Nagpur

The nature of IEC activities of Equi-City Project on water & sanitation awareness in schools and universities is to directly expose youth to problems that the underserved populations are facing, and the role of authorities. These educational campaign programmes can help promote serious reflection and discussion on issues such as water depletion, wastage and pollution, degradation, water related conflicts, and sanitation. For example, watershed monitoring, connecting schools upstream and downstream and information sharing and networking each other, is a great way to observe the impact of their settlement at a bioregional perspective. Community youth programmes often like to get involved in cleaning and protecting of the communities’ water source through different collective
eco-restoration actions.
Hence, empowering young people as promoters in the field of water and sanitation is a way of assuring that a project or programme has a greater effect and more long lasting impact on the communities. When trying to find solutions to water contamination and ways to improve access to water and sanitation in any given community, it is essential that youth become involved, so they themselves can work together in an organized fashion to identify appropriate solutions to the problems, and then take ownership” of the measures to apply those solutions.
The prevalence of stunting in India (38·4 per cent) is among the highest in the world, and diarrhea is a major killer of children below 5 years of age. Both these conditions closely relate to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene. The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), India’s flagship and the world’s largest sanitation programme, aims to accelerate universal access to sanitation in rural and urban India. Since its launch in 2014, SBM reports building close to 100 million toilets by providing financial incentives to needy families, involving local governments and communities in construction and in monitoring progress, and by conducting mass awareness campaigns. In 2015, India was 60 per cent open-defecation free (ODF), lagging behind her neighbors Bangladesh at 99 per cent, Sri Lanka at 97 per cent, Pakistan at 88 per cent, and Nepal at 70 per cent ODF. Today, India is at an important juncture, with SBM data showing more than 98 per cent sanitation coverage and sample studies reporting good progress but lower coverage in terms of latrine ownership (71 per cent) and sanitation coverage (93·1 per cent) in rural India.
Environmental programmes should try to involve young people as promoters basically because they are enthusiastic and energetic. In this media age, young people have access to huge amounts of information that can sometimes be overwhelming.
Young people are prepared to take risks in confronting conventional structures. They are a sector of society that will be able to assure sustainability. Indeed, youth are often more sensitive and intuitive than many adults, which gives them an edge in decision making on what will work and where a program should be directed.
To prepare youth for advocacy requires awareness building, training, and skills transfer from specialists in a number of key areas including:

• Internet-based social networks
• Policy aspects of the right to water and the right to sanitation
• Social justice and equity
• Rhetoric and debating skills
• Decision-making and group facilitation tools
• Marketing skills
• Environmental health
• Problems related to water and sanitation

Important tools used by youth to promote water-related issues include: door-to-door campaigns, water forums and brigades, school environmental groups, art contests, online and printed publications, educational radio and theatre shows, concerts, amongst others. This includes how they choose to generate their messages, and allowing them to be protagonists
of change amongst school and community authorities.
Young people are empowered by knowing that they have the capacity to influence change, i.e., if they can see what they achieve. In the case of water quality, by measuring the water quality or researching improvements in health or biodiversity. Therefore, any action plan to deal with the prioritised and analysed issue should be geared towards attaining small, reachable goals. An attitude of not pointing out errors, but rather finding more about the goals they set in their action plan, is a way of promoting the change they want to see.
By forming or joining existing youth networks, as well as maintaining contact, young people are also empowered. But when at a teenage stage, and if coming from needy or poor communities, they may have a responsibility to contribute to fulfill financial requirements of the family. Committed youth groups can begin to break down under external life pressures, including both economic and family demands. This is why it is important to think through and put in place strategies for maintaining the involvement of motivated youth over the long haul. For example, considering small stipends for the more mature and experienced youth, as a transition from purely voluntary work; access to training, stimulus attached to internet and media and certification can also be important incentives.
Through these IEC activities of Equi-City Project, youth can gain awareness about the growing urgency of issues related to water both locally and globally. So not only can environmental educational programmes help highlight the magnitude of the problem, but also bring all stakeholders together to implement probable solutions. Today’s young people are those that take tomorrow’s decisions – their involvement in today’s problems are thus crucial!