City Pulse

Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy was recognized by Honorable Minister of State (I/C), Shri Hardeep Singh Puri for being one of the most active and key partners of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) - The Swachh Bharat Mission - Urban (SBM-U) at the Swachh Mahotsav Award Ceremony held at New Delhi on Thursday. 

Given the current COVID-19 situation, and in compliance with the Government of India's mandates on physical distancing, Swachh Mahotsav Award Ceremony was held via video conference and attended by Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Janaagraha CEO Srikanth Viswanathan participated in the event through a weblink. 

“Janaagraha is proud and privileged to support the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Swachh Bharat Mission through the Swachhata mobile app.  The Swachhata app is built on the I Change My City platform.  Over 17 million citizens registered on Swachhata and posted close to 40 million complaints with over 90% resolution rate.  For us at Janaagraha this is a huge validation of the role of citizen participation in our cities and of the role of civic technology in facilitating the same,” says Janaagraha CEO Srikanth Viswanathan.  

Janaagraha has entered into a partnership with MoHUA for development, hosting and maintenance of technological solutions to help achieve the objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission.  

As part of the MoU, the Swachhata App, Swachh.City, SBM Engineer Apps and Swachh Manch were developed by I Change My City – a division of Janaagraha. These portals and apps are helping MoHUA in achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of a clean India. In April 2020 the updated version of the Swachhata App was launched to provide support and address complaints of the citizens in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. 

“We are privileged and grateful to have been a part of the Swachh Bharath Mission through our I Change My City civic technology platform. Swachhata has created a new wave of citizen government partnerships across the nation through simple, effective technology tools. We are proud to have played a part in catalyzing this mission for the Government of India,” says Sapna Karim, working on Civic Engagement at Janaagraha. 

About the Swachhata App  

Launched in August 2016, The Swachhata App is a fourth generation complaint redressal mobile application available on Android and iOS platforms.   

The App fuses together a time-tested complaint redressal platform with the opportunity for citizens to work together on civic issues with community-centric features for citizens to vote upon complaints, share them with other concerned citizens and comment on the work being done.  

As of date, Swachhata App is actively used in 3895 cities and has over 17.2 million users. As many as 19.4 million complaints have been posted and these have received 19.8 million vote ups from citizens. The App witnesses a resolution rate of 93% with over 18 million complaints resolved.  

Usage of the Swachhata App by citizens is also a key indicator in Swachh Survekshan that happens every year as a part of citizen feedback.  

The SBM Engineer App  

A Sanitary Engineer application in Android for the sanitary engineer/inspector to see the complaints uploaded by the citizens and take action on the ground. The app shows recent complaints in the area of the sanitary engineer, for which action needs to be taken. Each complaint category has predefined service level agreement and engineers have to resolve the complaints within a specified timeframe. 

Swachh.City 

It is the web portal for Municipal Commissioners and their digital teams to monitor the complaints received in their cities and towns. Citizens and stakeholders using Swachh.City can view real-time rating and ranking of various city municipal corporations across India during every Swachh Sarvekshan period. 

Swachh Manch 

A volunteering platform built to – Act, Learn, and Inspire. The 3 components have the ability to connect citizens, civil society groups, citizen forums/groups, schools, civic agencies, corporate employees and common citizens to create challenges, volunteering events, publicize the event, post requests for people & resources, post before and after pictures/videos of volunteering activities which will also spur other groups and communities to engage positively with the government to fix real issues on the ground.  

Swachhmanch.in was launched in September 2018 and since then 4,52,143 events have been created by ULBs and citizens across 3500 cities.  

About Janaagraha:  

Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy is a non-profit trust in the Jana Group co-founded by Swati Ramanathan and Ramesh Ramanathan in 2001. Janaagraha’s mission is to transform the quality of life in India’s cities and towns. It works with citizens to catalyse active citizenship in city neighbourhoods and with governments to institute reforms to city governance (what we call “City-Systems”).   

The “City-Systems” framework is a whole-of-systems approach to solving for India’s cities and comprises four distinct yet interdependent components: Urban Planning and Design (master plans, design standards for public utilities), Urban Capacities and Resources (municipal finance, municipal staffing and technology), Political Leadership (empowerment, legitimacy) and Transparency and Citizen Participation (public disclosures, citizen participation, service level guarantees and grievance redressal).