Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities- Toolkit 2022      

Figure 1: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

• On the eve of “Good Governance Day”, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India today launched the ‘Azadi@75 Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities- Toolkit 2022'.
• For achieving this vision, a key objective under SBM-U 2.0 is to make every urban local body at least 3-star Garbage Free as per the Star Rating protocol.

About the Initiative:

• The star rating protocol was launched by the central government in January 2018 to institutionalize a mechanism for cities to achieve garbage free status leading to a higher degrees of cleanliness.
• The protocol includes components such as cleanliness of drains & water bodies, plastic waste management, managing construction & demolition waste which are critical drivers for achieving garbage free cities.
• It is one of the various initiatives which intends to make Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) as a successful project.

Parameters:

• It is based on 12 parameters which follow a SMART framework – Single metric, Measurable, Achievable, Rigorous verification mechanism and Targeted towards outcomes.
• The star rating conditions have been designed in a way to enable cities to gradually evolve into a model (7-star) city,with progressive improvements in their overall cleanliness.
• It is a comprehensive framework that assesses cities across 23 different components of Solid Waste Management (SWM) and is graded based on overall marks received.

Monitoring the Cities

• To ensure that the Protocol has a SMART framework, the MoHUA has developed a three-stage assessment process.
• In the first stage, ULBs populate their progress data on the portal along with supporting documents within a particular timeframe.
• The second stage involves a desktop assessment by a third-party agency selected and appointed by MoHUA.
• Claims of cities that clear the desktop assessment are then verified through independent field-level observations in the third stage.

Significance:

• The performance of cities under the Star Rating Protocol is crucial as it carries significant weightage for their final assessment in Swachh Survekshan.
• It also ensures certain minimum standards of sanitation through a set of prerequisites defined in the framework.
• Since the rating is conducted at a city level, it makes the process easier to implement and helps the cities incrementally improve their overall cleanliness.

About SBM-U 2.0 mission

• It seeks to make all cities ‘Garbage Free’.
• It also seeks to ensure grey and black water management across the cities that are not covered under AMRUT.
• Mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste by utilizing the principles of 3Rs that is “Reduce, reuse, recycle”.