By Yashi Jain
India will soon have its cities competing with each other, not in the conventional, political way but in a way students compete in schools. The government has announced a star rating system for every city in the country, based on their cleanliness. The decision is based on the premise that it will ignite a sense of competition amongst the cities to outperform each other, in turn leading to cleaner cities. The wait is for a system in place even for villages.
Competing for the “garbage-free” tag
The rating will be on a scale of zero to seven, with the assessment taking a number of parameters into consideration. Just like we were marked on our overall discipline in school, cities will also be starred on a similar basis. The various elements that will make up the report card include the percentage of door-to-door collection of waste, fines imposed for littering, enforcement of ban for using thin plastic, daily sweeping, segregation of garbage at source, among other factors. This arrangement will be different from the Swachh Survekshan ranking survey, as that survey was a ranking system, whereas, in the new structure, many cities can have the same rating. The cities must compete to the best of their potential to get the “garbage-free” tag.
The road towards a healthy change
“The new star rating protocol is expected to be formally introduced in the next few weeks. Given its potential as a developmental-cum-aspirational tool for cities to incrementally improve their overall cleanliness, while working towards a garbage-free status, this is expected to greatly enthuse the city administrators,” Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said during a national workshop, last week.
Achieving a five or a seven-star rating will require cities to have a 100% score in every section listed on the report card. These grades will only be given out once the third party agencies have certified them. The main engagement of the urban cities will be in installing waste storage and litter bins.
Earlier this year, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board had launched a similar programme to rate industries on their emissions, in order to curb pollution. The programme brought about a healthy change. Along with informing the public about the industries and areas that emitted the most toxic gases it also encouraged industries to initiate a green change. This has resulted in positive ramifications and in industries recognising their grey areas.
The push for rural cleanliness
This announcement has come in just days after the United Nations special rapporteur, Leo Heller, had advised the centre to take a more humanitarian approach to the Swachh Bharat mission. While the star rating system will focus more on urban cleanliness, UN experts warn the government to pay attention to the basic rights of rural India as well. Heller said, “Eliminating open defecation is not only about building latrines, but requires adequate methods for behaviour change, and sufficient water supply is a pre-requisite. The Indian Government’s emphasis on constructing toilets should not overshadow the focus of drinking water provision for all and it should not involuntarily contribute to violating fundamental rights of others.”
This fair warning by the UN expert was dismissed by the government as a “baseless assertion”. However, it must be taken into consideration by the government in order to ensure equal development in both urban and rural areas. There should be some, if not the same, system in place to ensure that even the rural areas are growing in terms of water supply, the building of toilets, as well as overall cleanliness. Heller suggested, “To achieve this, considerable efforts will be required, in particular, to provide individual households solutions to those who currently rely on community toilets and public taps.”
Though cities have become cleaner since the inception of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and though there has been the installation of 53 million toilets in rural areas over the past three years, we need more rules in place to ensure equal growth, and to ensure that the growth is sustained, with all our report cards showing a 7/7 grade.
Photo by India Kangaroo on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND
Stay updated with all the insights.
Navigate news, 1 email day.
Subscribe to Qrius
