Indore’s Transformation as India’s Cleanest City: What Caused the Change?

Indore has been declared as India’s cleanest city seven times in a row. The consistent performance of Indore was a result of several initiatives taken by Indore Municipal Corporation, which included identifying appropriate solutions for waste collection and management, strengthening physical infrastructure, implementation mechanisms, monitoring, reward and punishment systems and so on. It had a positive impact by reducing air pollution and improving public health and urban aesthetics. The key factor for the change was the behavioural changes brought among the community. Drawing from different behavioural theories—social learning theory of Bandura, theory of reasoned action by Fishbein and Ajzen, trans-theoretical stages of change model by Prochaska and DiClemente and behavioural economy nudge theory, the paper argues that the transformation was driven by the creation of a dynamic, multi-level behavioural change ecosystem that integrated cognitive, social and structural mechanisms to advance and sustain new cleanliness norms.