Swachh Survekshan 2020 Rankings declared

On 20^th August 2020, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri released the rankings for Swachh Survekshan 2020. The 2020 Survekshan marks the completion of 5th edition of the largest urban sanitation survey. Swachh Survekshan 2020 surveyed a total of 4242 cities, 62 Cantonment Boards and 97 Ganga Towns and saw an unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens.

Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) Updates:

Since its launch in 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) has made significant progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management. 4,324 Urban ULBs have been declared ODF, 1,319 cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities certified ODF++ as per MoHUA’s sanitation protocols.

A total of 6 cities (Indore, Ambikapur, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Rajkot and Mysuru) have been rated as 5-star cities, 86 cities as 3-Star and 64 cities as 1-Star, as per MoHUA’s Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities.

What is Swachh Survekshan

Swachh Survekshan is an annual ranking exercise taken up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India to assess urban areas of country on their levels of cleanliness and active implementation of Swachhta mission initiatives in a timely & innovative manner.

The objective of survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns & cities a better place to live in.

In addition, survey also seeks to promote a spirit of healthy competition between towns & cities; to improve the quality of their services to people, and create cleaner cities and towns. MoHUA started an annual ranking of cities in the year 2016.

Swachh Survekshan 2020

Swachh Survekshan 2020 marks the completion of 5th edition of the largest urban sanitation survey. In 2020 the coverage of survey was 4242 cities (including 62 Cantonment Boards). The data collected through multifarious sources for 57 indicators (40 – Service Level Progress, 9 – Direct Observation and 8 – Citizen Feedback) have been compiled for ranking the cities.

Award Categories: A total of 130 awards under Swachh Survekshan 2020, are given at the national level, state level, zonal level and cantonment board level. The cities/town that have a population of more than 1 lakh, or are small state capitals and UTs are eligible for the national level awards.

Swachh Survekshan 2020 Rankings:

While Indore won the coveted title of the Cleanest City of India, Surat and Navi Mumbai won the second and third position respectively (in the > 1 lakh population category).

Chhattisgarh won the prestigious title of the Cleanest State of India in the > 100 ULB category while Jharkhand was adjudged the Cleanest State of India in the <100 ULB category.