Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 Overview

The ninth edition of Swachh Survekshan, governed by the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)-Urban, underscores its significance as the world’s largest cleanliness survey, evaluating urban sanitation and waste management in over 4,500 cities in India. The survey provides policymakers with essential data, aiming to enhance urban sanitation through competitive assessments and citizen feedback.

Key Highlights:

• Overview and Purpose: The Swachh Survekshan serves as a reality check for urban sanitation, measure gaps, and foster competition among cities to improve cleanliness.

• Historic Participation: In its latest edition, the survey saw participation from more than 4,500 cities, a substantial increase from fewer than 100 in 2016, reinforced by third-party verification and feedback from 140 million citizens.

• Survey Parameters: The assessment covers ten comprehensive parameters including waste segregation, collection, transport, sanitation worker welfare, and grievance redressal.

• Introduction of Super Swachh League: This new framework allows established clean cities like Indore, Surat, and Navi Mumbai, along with 20 other cities across different population sizes, to set benchmarks and stimulate healthy competition, enabling cities like Ahmedabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow to secure top ranks in the million-plus category.

• Focus on Inclusivity: The survey expanded the population categories from two to five, accommodating cities with populations from less than 20,000 to over one million, promoting broader participation.

• Significant Progress: Cities such as Bhubaneswar (moving from 34th to 9th place) and small towns like Aska and Chikiti significantly improved rankings, indicating the potential for cleanliness programs across various states, particularly in Odisha.

• Regional Performance: Southern Indian cities have underperformed, with Bengaluru noted as the least impressive; however, other cities like Hyderabad and Mysuru excelled. The National Capital Region presented mixed results with some areas improving ranks despite negative reports.

• Awards and Recognition: A total of 78 Swachh awards were distributed, promoting cities to become mentors for others, facilitating the spread of best practices.

• Best Practices from Leading Cities: Various cities introduced innovative waste management techniques—Indore excels in waste segregation, Surat generates revenue from treated sewage water, and Visakhapatnam transformed a toxic site into an eco-park.

• Emphasis on Tourist Locations: Cities like Prayagraj received accolades for exceptional sanitation during the Maha Kumbh festival, highlighting the need for sustained cleanliness drives to boost tourism.

• Thematic Focus on Waste Management: The 2025 survey theme, ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle (RRR)’, aims to create jobs and foster enterprise, building on the previous theme of ‘waste to wealth’. However, private sector hesitance regarding the commercial viability of waste-to-energy plants remains a concern.

• Civic Engagement Challenges: While a significant reduction in open defecation has been achieved through SBM, instigating behavioral changes concerning waste management presents challenges.

• Solid Waste Management Strategy: With cities generating approximately 1.5 lakh tonnes of solid waste daily, effective management will rely on decentralized action by urban local bodies (ULBs) for proper segregation and processing of waste, especially difficult categories like plastic and e-waste.

• Potential for Improvement: The transformation of Surat’s sanitation status from a garbage-laden location to a top-ranking city emphasizes that similar advancements are attainable for other Indian cities.

In conclusion, the Swachh Survekshan continues to be a critical tool in driving urban cleanliness initiatives forward, encouraging competition and measurable progress across diverse urban landscapes in India.

Important Points:

• Swachh Survekshan evaluates urban sanitation in over 4,500 cities.
• Introduction of Super Swachh League promotes competition.
• Expansion of (population) categories enhances inclusivity.
• Significant improvements noted in cities like Bhubaneswar and Aska.
• Leading cities adopt best practices in waste management.
• Tourist-centric cleanliness initiatives gain recognition.
• Focus on ‘RRR’ approach aims to stimulate job creation.
• Challenges in civic engagement and waste management persist.
• Effective management of solid waste is crucial for urban cleanliness.