Swachhata App 2.0: Using civic engagement to improve public toilet infrastructure

Bengaluru: The pan–India civic technology platform, Swachhata App developed by Bengaluru-based NPO, Janaagraha announced its new update on Monday with an added focus on civic engagement in new areas. The Swachhata App 2.0, which enables citizen participation in Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India will feature new options to report public urination spots, locate and rate public toilets.

The new Swachhata App 2.0 was released by Kaushal Kishore, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, in presence of Shri Hardeep Singh Puri Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in New Delhi on Monday.

"As responsible citizens, we often notice public toilets that are unusable, yellow spots (public urination), and garbage left uncollected on streets and wish to fix them without having to run from pillar to post. Janaagraha is proud to release the next generation of Swachhata apps for citizens and municipal engineers as part of SBM 2.0, which make this possible by leveraging the power of smartphones. An elaborate back end system has been put in place across 4,000 cities to ensure concerned authorities at the ward level can instantly receive the complaint with the information they need to take corrective action. The Swachh Bharat rankings act as an incentive for city governments to respond to complaints promptly. Citizens can make their locality better by up-voting complaints filed by others and giving feedback to municipal authorities, rating public toilets and much more." said Srinivas Alavilli, Head Civic Participation at Janaagraha.

Citizens in around 4000 cities can now file a complaint under 17 different categories. People can report about issues like dead animals, dustbins not getting cleaned, dumping of garbage, garbage vehicle not arriving, failure to sweep roads, lack of electricity in public toilets, lack of water supply in public toilets, public toilet blockage, unclean public toilets, open manholes and drains, stagnant water on roads, improper disposal of faecal waste, overflow of sewerage or stormwater, blockage due to debris removal and construction material, burning of garbage in open space and open defecation.

A major update on the Swachhata App 2.0 is the provision for a 360-degree feedback system, wherein one needs to upload a photograph as proof of resolution of the complaint. The new and improved app will serve the function of sustained citizen engagement in an attempt to improve the public toilet infrastructure in the cities towards meeting the Clean India mission objectives.

Using the Spot-Click-Report method - citizens only need to take a picture for a grievance spotted and post it on the Swachhata app.

The app will accurately identify the complaint location using the geo-location of the picture, which will lead to faster resolution of the complaint. Similarly, they can also report cases of public urination spots and, locate and rate public toilets. Once a complaint is registered, they can track the status of their complaint through push notifications. Once, the issue is resolved, citizens will get a 'resolved' image as proof of the work completed. In case the citizens are unhappy with the resolution, they can reopen the complaint or file a grievance via mail.

All complaints are resolved within the time frame of 12 hours to 1 week depending on the nature of the work. With more than 1.8 crore registered users since its inception in 2016, the app has received more than 2.3 crore complaints with a resolution rate of 93 per cent.

Through the app, citizens can provide feedback on the quality of the resolution, view complaints filed in other localities, share complaints on social media and audit and provide feedback on the progress metrics claimed by cities.

It will also aid sanitary engineers who will also receive the geo-location of the complaint and won't have to struggle to locate the address. They will also receive a photo of the complaint, providing further clarity on the civic issue. The 'resolved' image can be uploaded with ease from the comfort of their phones and they will receive instant feedback from citizens.

Municipal administrators will be able to view the complaints on a specific dashboard for their city. They will also be able to easily track the pro-activeness of sanitary engineers in resolving complaints and investigate the various hindrances. This will also allow them to spot recurrent and intractable problems in their cities.

"We firmly believe that the quality of life in India's cities can be transformed if we enable and empower citizens, councillors and ward officials across 80,000 plus wards in 4,500 plus cities. The Swachhata app seeks to serve this objective of enabling and empowering citizens, councillors and ward officials," said Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO, Janaagraha.