The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) releases the Ease of Living Index. The 2020 Ease of Living Report was released on 4th March 2021. It is a second edition of the report. The first one was published in 2018.

111 cities participated in the assessment exercise of EoL Report 2020. Bengaluru is the best city in EoLI 2020 under the million+ category (A city with a population of more than a million). Shimla is the best city in EoLI 2020 under the ‘Less than Million Category’.

Sri Nagar and Muzaffarnagar are at the bottom in the ‘Million+’ and ‘Less than Million’ categories respectively.

This article mentions the relevant information found out in Ease of Living Report 2020 which could be useful for the IAS Preparation.

Basic Facts about Ease of Living Index 2020:

1. The ministry has introduced a revision in the latest edition of EoLI. In Ease of living Index 2018, input and output parameters were put together to assess citizens’ ease of living. However, in 2020, the input parameters are incorporated into a new index called the ‘Municipal Performance Index’.
   • Governance Pillar has been moved to Municipal Performance Index.
   • With the introduction of the Citizens’ Perception Survey which has a weightage of 30 percent, the scores of 2020 are incomparable to 2018 scores.
2. Citizens’ quality of life is assessed based on three pillars:
   • Quality of Life
   • Economic Ability
   • Sustainability
   • Citizens’ Perception Survey – It is introduced in the 2020 Ease of Living Index.
3. The four pillars of EoLI are expanded across 49 indicators that are examined under these 14 categories:
   • Education
   • Health
   • Housing and Shelter
   • WASH & SWM
   • Mobility
   • Safety & Security
   • Recreation
   • Economic Development
   • Economic Opportunities
   • Environment
   • Green Spaces & Building
   • Energy Consumption
   • City Resilience

Top 10 Best Indian Cities in Ease of Living Index 2020

The list of best cities of India (Million+) as per the MoHUA’s EoLI is given below:

1. Bengaluru
2. Pune
3. Ahmedabad
4. Chennai
5. Surat
6. Navi Mumbai
7. Coimbatore
8. Vadodara
9. Indore
10. Greater Mumbai

The list of the top 10 cities of India (Less than a million) in EoLI 2020 is given below:

1. Shimla
2. Bhubaneshwar
3. Silvassa
4. Kakinada
5. Salem
6. Vellore
7. Gandhinagar
8. Gurugram
9. Davanagere
10. Tiruchirapalli

Poor Performers in Ease of Living Index 2020

The bottom 10 cities of India in million+ and less than a million categories are tabled below:

Region-Wise Ranks of Cities in EoLI 2020

The ranks of top 5 million+ Indian cities, region-wise are tabled below:

Ranks of Cities – Pillar Wise – Best Performer

Key Findings of Ease of Living Report 2020

1. Urban Expansion:
   • 60 crore people are expected to live in urban areas by 2030 and the number is expected to soar to 85 crores by 2050.
2. The score of India is averaged at 53.51.
3. Western and Southern Indian Cities fared better. The existence of regional disparity is a cause of concern as the lowest-scoring cities are found in eastern and northeastern cities.
4. What drives urban expansion?
   • Better employment and economic opportunities
   • Access to health care facilities, and
   • Higher standard of living
5. 49 cities with over a million population and 62 cities with less than a million population are assessed.
6. The literacy rate in a majority of Indian cities is higher than the national literacy rate of 74 percent.
7. Only 31 cities have all identified beneficiaries covered under PMAY, including major cities such as Ahmedabad, Gurugram, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhopal, Kavaratti, Indore, Pasighat, Guwahati, and Meerut.
8. What is Delhi’s rank in the Ease of Living Index 2020?
   • It is ranked 13.
9. Which factors performed better in the Quality of Life indicator?
   • Access to Education
   • Housing and Shelter
   • Safety and Security
10. Economic Ability pillar performance remained poor with a national average of 13.17; while Sustainability Pillar had the highest national average score of 53.63.
11. City Resilience and Energy Consumption factors scored 91.59 and 65.05 respectively.
12. Out of six regions (West, North, South, East, Northeast and Central); West Region was the best performing region. The states/UTs under the western regions are:
    • Dadra and Nagar Haveli,
    • Daman and Diu,
    • Goa,
    • Gujarat,
    • Maharashtra

Citizen Perception Survey 2020

The top 10 Indian Cities which were scored the highest as per the Citizens’ Perception Survey are:

1. Bengaluru
2. Silvassa
3. Davanagere
4. Solapur
5. Jodhpur
6. Imphal
7. Agartala
8. Kakinada
9. Bilaspur
10. Bhagalpur

The worst performers in the Citizen Perception Survey are (in descending order):

1. Amritsar
2. Nashik
3. Tirupati
4. Belagavi
5. Aligarh
6. Tiruppur
7. Namchi
8. Amravati
9. Rampur
10. Vijayawada

To quote the report, “ It can be concluded that cities with better accessibility to governance information, facilities, and services are likely to perform well in the survey even if their performance for the index is lower. Alternatively, even if cities excel in their performance across the pillars of the index, but fail to ensure transparency, and accessibility, or had a lower rate of citizen participation, their score in the survey is likely to plummet.

How are the findings of EoLI useful?

The citizens’ perception survey is an insightful tool to evaluate the service delivery satisfaction of the people. Local governance and administration are evaluated based on public service delivery performance.

Cities of India are given reflection of their performance through the Ease of Living Index. Evaluating their performance, these cities can build practices that improve the citizens’ ease of living alongside offering economic growth and sustainability in the long run.

The cities can also track their ease of living vis-a-vis global benchmarks like Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What are the challenges of Urban Expansion? – EoL Report 2020

The following are the challenges of the swift pace of urban expansion:

1. It outpaces the local administration’s capacity to cater to the needs of people.
2. Infrastructure inadequacies
3. Depletion of resources
4. Slum Concentration
5. Rise in poverty
6. Degradation of Environment
7. Urban governance

The above challenges are coupled with vast social and economic inequalities.

Government Schemes for Urban Development

The Government of India has launched a series of schemes/initiatives for poverty alleviation, affordable housing, sanitation, infrastructure, and harnessing technology; all for urban development. The list of such schemes are:

1. Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-MULM)
2. Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U)
3. Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)
4. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U)
5. Smart Cities Mission (SCM)
6. HRIDAY

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