#SwachhSurvekshan2017: How a song took Indore to top of the cleanliness chart

Despite Shaan's sonorous voice, Aakanksha Soni was vexed. For the last four months, the 22-year-old engineer found herself being subjected to Ho halla, the civic body's anthem for the Swacch Indore campaign, at every public space in the city — in housing colonies, in buses and in cinema halls. “I usually wake up by 10am, but since January, I've invariably been rising by 7.30 because the garbage collection truck drives past, blaring this song,” says Soni, adding that she ends up hearing the song at least eight times every day.

While Soni is understandably annoyed, it is thanks to Ho halla that Indore emerged as the cleanest city in India in the Swachh Survekshan 2017, announced by Union Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu earlier this week. Indore left behind 433 million+ population cities, climbing 24 spots from its 25th position in 2016, itself a leap from its 149th position in 2014.​

Each city was evaluated on five parameters — waste collection, solid-waste management, construction of toilets, sanitation strategies and behaviour change communication. And it is this last parameter that Indore's civic body, Nagar Nigam, sought to influence with Ho halla, by lyricist and musician Hrishi. “Indore has become number one because of the residents, public representatives and government officials. But all the credit for the changed mindset of the people goes to the song Ho halla and singer Shaan,” says the city's municipal commissioner Manish Singh.​

The civic body went all out to clean the city when mayor Malini Gaud launched the Swacch Indore campaign on 2 October 2016. Since many residents would leave their garbage in and around the 1800 garbage collection bins across the city, the Nagar Nigam officials decided to remove them entirely. Instead, 450 trucks were charged with the task of collecting garbage from homes in the city's 85 wards. A truck driver and a helper would make five rounds in the morning and three in the evening to collect trash from each house daily. The drivers were asked to play the Ho halla song at all times during the collection drive. This clearly sent out a message that residents were equal partners in the city's cleanliness mission. ​

Swacch Indore campaign

The civic body also ensured that the song was made the default caller tune of approximately 6,000 civic officials. In addition, state government officials and another 15,000 residents turned this song into their caller tunes after lakhs of people circulated it on WhatsApp. “Every single person in Indore knows this song by heart now,” says Hrishi (who formerly went by the name Hrishikesh Pandey).

“When a song becomes an anthem, it takes on the ability to generate common emotions and build common identities among a disparate group of people,” says Biju Dominic, CEO of Final Mile, a behaviour architecture consultancy. “Keeping a city clean requires every citizen — rich or poor, child or elderly — to have a common vision and purpose. Undoubtedly, Ho halla has played an influential role in building the spirit of common purpose among the citizens of Indore.” 

Hrishi says that he decided to use the phrase 'Ho halla' after it came up in a discussion he had with municipal commissioner Manish Singh sometime last year. “I ended up writing the anthem the very same night,” says Hrishi, adding that singer Shaan instantly agreed to sing it when he heard the concept. 

​Genesis of an idea

“Everyone from the mayor, the district collector and the municipal commissioner have called me to congratulate me for the success of the song,” he says. “One woman told me that her son dances to this song every day. Another man said that his grandchild croons the anthem. This is how I know we've achieved our goal.”

Watch the video here: