Categories: News

‘Equi-City2019 finale’- A glance at the year

Aligning with the aim of the project towards increasing awareness on sanitation and health, the Equi-City team,on-site, organised a series of sensitisation campaigns on sanitation and health issues throughout 2019 in Nagpur. Furthermore, working in line with the participatory governance approach a City Development Forum Meeting and Intercity Forum Event were organised which had experts from the urban sector participating in them. This year being the concluding year of the Equi-City Project, the team worked towards delivering visible outcomes such as the development of a mobile application for gathering citizens’ feedback for services provided by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
Following are the activities carried out in 2019 under the Equi-City Project:

Sanitation and health awareness campaigns facilitating Swacch Bharat Mission in Nagpur
Equi-City team in Nagpur facilitated sanitation and health awareness campaigns in the city targeting NMCschools, residential areas, shops and sanitation workers promoting a healthy and hygienic lifestyle.
The team along with NMC conducted awareness campaigns on sanitation and quiz competitions in all the ten zones of Nagpur and in NMC affiliated schools. The Equi-City team created awareness in the residential areas and shops around the schools regarding sanitation, environment and cleanliness of the city. Apart from these campaigns at schools, the team also carried out health and sanitation campaigns at various locations for sanitation workers and health checkups nearBhandewadidump site. The team was able to sensitise around15000 people including sanitation workers about keeping their environment clean.

City Development Forum meeting for updates on projects and activities
The Equi-City team along with NMC organized a City Development Forum meeting on April 23, 2019, to update the CDF members with the status of the Equi-City project-based activities organized in the past year and review the same. Also,to get feedback and suggestions for the upcomingproject activities.
The project activities that were carried out under the Equi-City in the year 2018-19 regarding Participatory Forum, Organisational Diversity, Capacity Building and Research, Monitoring and Implementation and Information Dissemination were discussed.

Sensitisation workshop on equality and diversity
The two day long interactive session was organised by the Equi-City team on May 14 and 15, 2019, at IMA Hall, Nagpur in order to sensitise NMC officials. The main focus of the sensitisationworkshop was to educate officials on the Equality and Diversity Framework while promoting and advocating for inclusive and harmonious workplace. In addition, the workshops were focused on enabling handle diverse population within the city and address their concerns. Further, officials will be able to consider their own roles and responsibilities in creating a working environment which is free from discrimination on any ground and enables teams to reach their full potential.

Equi-City mobile app form monotiring and evaluation of services in Nagpur

The Municipal Rating System Mobile Application under the project was formally launched on Google Play store for open downloads by citizens and officials both. The mobile application consists of basic information about Nagpur city along with Prabhag/Ward wise corporator details with contact information. There is also a questionnaire based survey on the basis of which satisfaction level of citizens about the civic services is judged and thishelps in making better decisions towards improvement of services in the wards lacking behind.
The app has aweb based backend which enables capturing of real time survey data. Itprovides a platform for citizens to feed the real-time data in the form of response to questionnaires. The app will ramp up time for fast data collection which will help the NMC to get accurate data to analyze citizens’ perception onservice quality being provided by the corporation.
The mobile app will also act as a bridge to pass the information in real time from citizens to the authorities. This can turn out to be a highly effective solution and should reduce the reporting time and improve 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 project

Inter-City Forum and best practices sharing event
Inter City Forum (ICF) has been established under the Equi-City project in order to bring together stakeholders and local authorities on a single platform, to engage in collaborative solutions and coordinated action for equitable delivery of municipal services. This multi-stakeholder process (MSP) is fundamentally about participatory decision-making and information sharing at the regional level. If the key stakeholders take ownership of all stages and levels of decision-making, development activities are more likely to build on local strengths, meet local needs and priorities, and foster self-determination and sustainability.
All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) along with the NMC organised Inter-City Forum and Best Practices Sharing Event under on November 30, 2019, at Hotel Centre Point, Ramdaspeth, Nagpur. The ICF commenced with the introduction and a welcome note by Jayant Pathak, Regional Director, AIILSG, Nagpur. The event was inaugurated by Manisha Kothe, Deputy Mayor, Nagpur, in the presence of Ram Joshi, Additional Commissioner, Nagpur, Chetan Gawande, Mayor, Amravati, Kusum Sahu, Deputy Mayor, Amravati, Nanda Jichkar, former Mayor, Nagpur, Ramnath Sonawane, CEO, Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Ltd. and Pashim Tewari, Technical Director, AIILSG. The event was conducted for government agencies, organisations, NGOs, private agencies, CSOs, and others to collaborate to achieve a common goal.
The Amravati Municipal Corporation presented best practice on implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna through online monitoring system at every stage of application in Amravati. Dr Tikesh Bisen, Tata Trust, presented best practice on Model Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) Project in Nagpur. The Model UPHC Project has contributed in capacity building for improving management and efficiencies, digitisation of patient details in UPHC, paperless OPD, syndromic data analysis planned, remodelling of the warehouse, digitisation of supplies, policy changes, reducing expenditureon diagnostic services and optimal use of resources in UPHCs. The final presentation was given by Assistant Commissioner, NMC, Milind Meshram. He talked about tax monitoring system in Nagpur which increases the value of property data and streamlines payments with enriched analytics through spatial and visual data processing. The system helps in faster processing of complex data and analysis, increased understanding of what, where and how to optimise resources, gain geographical insights about data points and optimise planning & improve revenues. The session ended with a brief knowledge sharing about the best practices followed by suggestions and Q/A.

Regular activities
The Equi-City team regularly keeps in touch with CDF, Diversity Committee and NMC officials and keeps them updated about the on-going and upcoming activities under the project. Project activities are managed and organised on a regular basis. Further, a monthly newsletter and a monthly article in Urban Update magazine are also published to highlight the activities under the Equi-City project. A separate website of the Equi-City is also in place to have feedbacks from the citizens as well.

Upcoming activities