Nagrik Dwar: a grievance platform that closed the loop between citizens and the people who fix things

The municipal commissioner described the existing grievance system as "a black hole with a phone number". Complaints arrived by helpline, paper letters at ward offices, social media posts and walk-ins. Each was written into a register or a spreadsheet, forwarded to a department by email or phone, and then — from the citizen's point of view — disappeared.

Field staff often did fix the problem, but nobody recorded it. The same pothole would be reported ten times by ten citizens, creating ten records, and the corporation could not tell which complaints were resolved, which were duplicates and which were genuinely stuck.

We spent time at the helpline, at two ward offices and with field staff from sanitation, roads and electrical departments. Citizens wanted three things: an easy way to report, proof that someone had seen it, and proof that it was fixed. Field staff wanted fewer phone calls from supervisors asking for updates and a clear list of what to do each day.

Accessibility was non-negotiable. A large share of citizens would report in Hindi, many through WhatsApp rather than an app, and some by voice note. Every channel had to feed the same system.

The heart of Nagrik Dwar is routing. Each complaint is located on the map, categorised by an AI model trained on past complaints in Hindi and English, checked for duplicates nearby, and assigned to the right department and ward officer automatically. Officers can correct the category, and every correction improves the model.

Duplicates are merged rather than deleted: citizens who reported the same pothole all follow one complaint and all receive the resolution photo.

Public-scale software needs strong QA and accessibility work, so both were staffed from the start.

Government projects involve formal approvals; each decision below was minuted with the corporation's IT cell.

Everything that shipped, for citizens, field staff and administrators.

We launched in four wards first, with the helpline and ward offices entering every complaint into Nagrik Dwar alongside citizens using the app and WhatsApp. The first weeks surfaced a backlog nobody had seen clearly before; the dashboard made it visible, and the commissioner used it in weekly review meetings with department heads.

City-wide launch followed, promoted through ward offices, local newspapers and QR codes on garbage vehicles.

Proof of resolution builds trust. The single most-valued feature among citizens was the "after" photo.

Visibility creates accountability. Once ward-level delays were on a dashboard reviewed weekly, they started to shrink.