The announcement was made at the Global Citizen Festival organised in Mumbai where millions of people gathered to support key global issues including hygiene and sanitation
In support of the Government of India’s flagship sanitation initiative ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,’ RB in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and EY launched the highly innovative Hygiene Index programme. The announcement was made at the Global Citizen Festival organised in Mumbai where millions of people gathered to support key global issues including hygiene and sanitation.
Complementing RB’s ‘Banega Swachh India’ campaign, the Hygiene Index focuses on six sectors — water, solid waste, sewerage, toilet, health and behaviour change communication.The Index will be calculated for more than 100 cities based on primary and secondary data collection and stakeholder consultations.
In the first phase, 10 cities including Pune, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar NDMC, Varanasi, Visakhapatnam and Udaipur will be analysed by January 2017. Using the tool, the performance of the cities will be benchmarked and easily comparable, along with analysis of the best practices adopted. This will include the development of an investment heatmap for all the cities depicting investments made by various departments. An Annual City Hygiene Award Programme will also be held at the end of the year to felicitate the best performing cities.
The Hygiene Index is being developed as a monitoring tool to help the government assess the hygiene status of their cities and identify areas that need improvement. An ‘Ideation Lab’ is also supporting the programme that will provide key technical data and direction to the programme. This ‘Ideation Lab’ consists of members from research institutes, health institutes, multi-lateral donor agencies, and various government agencies.