Urban-Rural Convergence

Background

Urban-rural convergence is an initiative that aims to ensure access of sanitation services to all gram panchayats (GPs) via Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) located closest to them. With efforts in implementing decentralised waste management across 114 ULBs as well as enabling the rural population to avail sanitation facilities from urban areas located nearby, eGov with CPR (post-field observations and research) decided to include gram panchayats in the FSM application as part of this initiative.

Introduction

Under the urban-rural convergence (U-RC) GPs are tagged to ULBs which will service desludging requests for households in the respective GPs. The process-flow across the value chain, and actors would remain the same. However, the logic of pricing and billing of requests from GPs may vary from requests within the limits of the ULB itself.

Currently, the factors that are being considered to determine pricing are :

1. Location of the GP

2. Distance of the GP from ULB

3. Distance of GP from the FSTP

Considering these pricing inconsistencies, we are designing and releasing a simple version of the urban-rural convergence system. With the success of a statewide rollout, larger populations and households can have access to and benefit from the FSM module and subsequently the service with speed, and at scale.

Core Value Hypothesis

The users’ needs and the value this feature would provide are as follows:

1. If we allow households from GPs to raise (or ULBs to record) requests in the FSM application, they will use it responsibly which would result in reduced public dumping with the waste collected and disposed of properly.

2. If we allow ULB admins to view inputs from GPs in the FSM module on the dashboard, they will use it responsibly and improve the quality of service by making better data-driven decisions.

Solution - Quick Win

Using the above, we have outlined modifications in the FSM module to include gram panchayats:

A field/option to select gram panchayats tagged to a locality from a list to be provided while creating a new desludging application. The amount per trip field will be changed to a free text field instead of an auto-calculated and auto-populated amounts field, and the demand will be generated based on the new amount added.

As the actual amount will be known once the DSO/driver reaches the citizens’ location and sees the property + distance, an option to update the amount per trip is provided where the user updates the trip to start the service.

Risk/Limitations

Addressed in the Out of Scope section.

Out of scope:

The above solution should cover the majority of U-RC use cases, but there are scenarios (edge cases) that deviate from the options. Workarounds for the same are suggested here.

Use Case	Chance of Occurrence*	Workaround
A citizen from GP missed to select GP.	>10%	Application can be rejected and updated if any amount has not been paid. DSO can share information after inspection/before assigning sanitation workers and vehicles.
A citizen from GP missed to select GP and has paid the full amount in advance.	>1%

*assumption to be validated post launch.

From our on-ground research and observations, of the 40-60 requests the ULB receives for desludging, 4-7 of them are from GPs. This implies that approximately 10% of the total requests per month are from GPs. The above percentage of occurrence is within that 10%. These use cases will be handled in future versions.

Detailed Solution

While creating a New Desludging Application, a radio button to select gram panchayats is provided. The list of GPs is shown in the dropdown and this field will be based on the Locality selected in the "Location Details" section. The radio button is selected by default on “Within ULB Limits”. By selecting gram panchayat and the name of the gram panchayat from the dropdown, the Amount per trip field (in the Payments Details) section is changed to a free text field. The total and advance are calculated based on the same.

Based on field observations, the actual amount is only known once the vehicle reaches the citizens’ location. Hence, an additional field to edit the amount per trip is provided along with the Update Trips in the pop-up before starting the service. The FSM calculator calculates the total amount and balance based on the same, and the billing service generates the demand accordingly.

Which municipal, business and core services would these changes affect?

Municipal Services	Business Services	Core Services
What?	How?	What?	How?	What?	How?
FSM apply	Additional field to enter GP	location	Additional field- GP + impact on geotag.	Billing Service	Bill generates based on the amount entered.
FSM calculator	Calculation based on the amount entered instead of auto-calculation based on property type, etc.	mdms service	New list of GPs tagged to the respective localities.	collections service	Demand generated based on the amount entered.
Vendor	Check to see if the vendor is registered to serve the locality.	reports	New inputs from GPs tagged to localities.	Dashboard analytics	New inputs for analysis from GPs tagged to respective localities.
Vehicle	Check to see if the vehicle is registered to serve the locality.

Specifications

A new tenant service must be created in the MDMS for gram panchayats. The necessary updates as per the following must be made in fsm-address and fsm-geolocation entity list.

List of entities:

• ULB

- Locality

- City

- Gram panchayats

Create Desludging Application:

Selecting Gram Panchayat

Attribute	Type	Mandatory (Y/N)	Comments
Gram Panchayat	Array	Y	Selecting from the list of GPs under each locality in the MDMS data. Default value to N/A. Give a dropdown to change. Selection of any value apart from N/A must: Change the auto-fill field to the free text field in the Payment Details section. The FSM calculator service should be modified to calculate as per the amount entered in the free text field. Demand for advance must be generated based on the previous point. Add new GPs as and when updated by a state/ULB.

Payment Details- Advance Amount

Field	Data Type	Mandatory (Y/N)	Comments
Amount per trip	Numeric	N	Free text field.
Total Amount	Numeric	N	Calculated based on the above field and the number of trips.
Advance Amount	Numeric	Y	Minimum amount <= than the amount entered in the free text field.

Update Trips:

Payment Details- Balance Amount

Field	Data type	Mandatory (Y/N)	Comments
Amount per trip	Numeric	Y	Selection of any value apart from N/A must: Provide the free text field in the Update Trips section to enter the “Amount per Trip”. The FSM calculator service should be modified to calculate as per the amount entered in the free text field. Demand for the balance amount must be generated based on the previous point.
Total amount	Numeric	Y	Field displayed in “Update Trips”. Calculated based on the above field and the number of trips. Non-editable field.
Balance amount	Numeric	Y	Field displayed in “Update Trips”. Non-editable field. Difference between the amount paid and the total based on the latest update. Example: Amount per trip updated to = Rs 2,000 in the Update Trips Screen. Advance paid = Rs 0 Balance amount = Rs 2000-0 = Rs 2,000 Validation - Maximum amount entered = amount as per above calculation.

Success Criteria

The success criteria for U-RC are:

TRUE NORTH Zero untreated waste	We must ensure that waste is collected and disposed of in the right method, at the right place and at the right time.
SECONDARY Inclusive sanitation services	Desludging service requests must be accessible to all citizens.

Metrics to track

We will track the metrics below to gather learnings on the impact of these changes on FSM to share it on the FSM dashboards and reports. But more specifically, we will track the metrics to see:

• If our hypotheses are correct?

• Is the FSM services more accessible(given criteria above)?

• What are the unanticipated implications?

Additionally, we must monitor guardrails to ensure there are no major implications on the ULBs’ ability to handle requests (for example, major changes to the volume of requests and difference in SLAs of service between GP and non-GP).

Goal/Reason	Metric	Why we are tracking it
Zero untreated waste	The number of requests received from GPs to # of households per GP.	To understand the gap with respect to the requests and to increase awareness. Anticipate the adoption overtime.
Zero untreated waste	The number of requests received from GPs reconciled at FSTP.	Due to the distance, chances of open dumping is high. This will help validate/invalidate the assumption.
Inclusive sanitation services	The number of requests received from the GPs.	No major changes in ULB employee adoption. However, trends in the number of requests can be noted.

Guardrails

Metric	Why we are tracking it
The average SLA of GP per request	To understand the time taken to service GPs. Deep-dive to see root causes in case of large gaps or discrepancies.
The average SLA of non-GP per request to the average SLA of GP per request	We need to enable admins to ensure that the citizens in GPs are receiving services in a timely manner, just like the non-GP citizens.