Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26

1. At a Glance

• Swachh Survekshan (SS) is an annual national survey that ranks Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) on urban sanitation. It is run by the Department of Urban Development (DoUD), MoHUA. It uses citizen feedback and digital, GPS-monitored verification [1].
• The 2025-26 awards are the 10th edition. The President presented them on 11 Nov 2026 [1].
• It scores the whole sanitation value chain, not just how clean the streets look. This covers segregation, collection, transport, processing, desludging, used water, sanitation workers' welfare and grievance redressal [1].
• Why it matters for UPSC: it brings together cooperative and competitive federalism, urban governance, waste management and behavioural change. These fall under GS-II, GS-III and GS-IV.

2. Why in the News

• 11 Nov 2026: The President honoured India's cleanest cities at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26 under MoHUA [1].
• 60 national awards in 5 categories. 4,751 cities were surveyed [1].
• New features this edition:
• Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) awards for mentor–mentee pairs.
• New categories for River Front, Coastal and Himalayan cities.

• State First Swachh City awards [1].

• PRAGATI-50 was announced: 50 cities to be developed as Model Clean Cities [1].

• The President said school curricula should include topics like plastic waste management. She also said sanitation workers' ground-level suggestions and citizen feedback should be valued [1].

3. Background & Evolution

• 2014: Swachh Bharat Mission launched as a nationwide urban sanitation drive, described as a "people's movement" [1].
• 2016: The first Swachh Survekshan surveyed 73 cities [1].
• 1 Oct 2021: The PM launched SBM-Urban 2.0 together with AMRUT 2.0 [4].
• Oct 2021: The Union Cabinet approved SBM-U 2.0:
• outlay of ₹1,41,600 crore;

• goal of at least a 3-star Garbage Free certification for all cities under MoHUA's Star Rating Protocol [5].

• 17 Jul 2025: The President presented the SS 2024-25 awards [3].

• Indore is listed first under the Super Swachh League, in the "more than 10 lakh" population category [2].

• SSJ began after these awards, with SS 2024-25 awardees serving as mentor cities [1].

• 11 Nov 2026: SS 2025-26 (10th edition) awards held; cities surveyed have grown from 73 (2016) to 4,751 [1].

4. Core Static Facts

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Governance / Ethical

• Ranking cities turns cleanliness into a contest, which pushes ULBs to compete [1].
• Citizen feedback and GPS-monitored verification make the results more credible and help hold ULBs accountable [1].
• SSJ rewards a city for how well it mentors others, not just its own score. This builds peer learning instead of a winner-takes-all contest [1].

Administrative / Federal

• State First Swachh City awards encourage competition at the State level. The Minister urged States to run their own State-level Swachh Survekshan [1].
• Splitting UTs by number of ULBs, and cities by population, makes sure like is compared with like [1].
• PRAGATI-50 moves from ranking cities to helping selected cities improve through targeted, technology-led work and continuous monitoring [1].

Social

• Sanitation workers' welfare is a scored indicator. SafaiMitras are a keyword in the release. Both show a focus on dignity and safety [1].
• Cleanliness needs citizens, local administrations and sanitation workers to act together, so it is framed as a people's movement [1].

Environmental

• Riverfront and coastal cleanliness supports environmental sustainability and the health and livelihoods of nearby communities [1].
• Legacy waste remediation and the rise in processing from 16% to 80% reduce landfill load [1].
• Mechanised desludging and used water management address faecal sludge and water pollution [1].

Behavioural (GS-IV)

• Lasting change comes from habit and shared responsibility, not rankings alone. This is the reason for the call to add plastic waste management to school curricula [1].

Technological

• GPS-monitored digital verification is used in assessment [1].
• PRAGATI-50 is built on technology-driven interventions [1].

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• 17 Jul 2025: SS 2024-25 awards presented by the President [3]. Indore was placed in the Super Swachh League, >10 lakh category [2].
• After the 2024-25 awards: the Swachh Shehar Jodi mentor–mentee model began [1].
• 2026: PRAGATI-50 (Model Clean Cities) and Swachhata Hi Seva 2026 [1].
• 11 Nov 2026: SS 2025-26 (10th edition) awards. Details:
• 4,751 cities and 60 awards [1];
• 70 mentor cities and 191 mentee cities [1];
• new River Front, Coastal and Himalayan categories [1].

7. Prelims Hooks

• Swachh Survekshan is run by the Department of Urban Development, MoHUA, not the Ministry of Jal Shakti [1].
• SS 2025-26 is the 10th edition. The awards were presented on 11 Nov 2026 [1].
• 4,751 cities were surveyed in 2025-26, against 73 in 2016 [1].
• 60 national awards across 5 categories [1].
• Swachh Shehar Jodi pairs 70 mentor cities with 191 mentee cities. The pair is ranked on its combined score [1].
• SSJ mentor cities are SS 2024-25 awardees [1].
• The new 2025-26 categories are River Front, Coastal and Himalayan cities [1].
• For State First Swachh City, UTs are split into ≤5 ULBs and >5 ULBs [1].
• PRAGATI-50: 50 cities to become Model Clean Cities [1].
• Under SBM-U, urban waste processing rose from 16% to 80% and door-to-door collection from 44% to over 96% [1].
• SBM-U 2.0 was launched on 1 Oct 2021, alongside AMRUT 2.0 [4].
• SBM-U 2.0 outlay is ₹1,41,600 crore. Its target is at least a 3-star Garbage Free rating for all cities [5].
• Indore topped the Super Swachh League (>10 lakh category) in SS 2024-25 [2].

8. What the 80% Processing Figure Does Not Tell You

• Processing needs sorted waste, and audits keep finding unsorted waste
• SBM-U says urban waste processing rose from 16% to 80% [1].
• But compost and recycling work well only when wet and dry waste are kept apart from the start. This is called segregation at source.
• A 2022 CAG report on waste management in ULBs found mixed waste reaching processing sites. Only partial sorting was done at 4 of the 9 sites checked, so recyclables were harder to recover and the compost was of poorer quality [11].

• So waste that 'reaches a plant' and is 'counted as processed' may still give poor results.

• New vehicles did not fix old habits

• In Karnataka, CAG found segregation at source was not followed in 32 of 35 ULBs it checked [10].
• Vehicles had separate sections for wet and dry waste. Collectors still put both kinds into both sections [10].

• The lesson: buying equipment is easy to show and score. Changing what workers and households do every day is much harder.

• How to use this in an answer

• Quote the 80% figure, but add that independent audits measure a different thing: the quality of segregation, not the amount of waste that reaches a plant.

9. The Old Garbage Mountains Behind the Daily Collection

• Daily collection is improving, but past waste is still piled up
• Legacy waste is old garbage dumped over many years in open dumpsites, often from before any processing existed.
• About 2,479 such dumpsites (each with 1,000 tonnes or more) have been identified. Together they hold about 25 crore tonnes of waste [7][8].

• About 1,138 dumpsites have been fully cleared, and 877 lakh tonnes of legacy waste remediated [7][8].

• The problem is concentrated in a few huge sites

• Just 214 'high-impact' dumpsites hold nearly 80% of the remaining legacy waste [7][8].

• So counting how many sites have been cleared can look good while the biggest piles stay.

• The deadline has just passed

• The Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme (DRAP) began in November 2025 and aimed for 'Lakshya Zero Dumpsites' by September 2026 [8]. Other releases give October 2026 [7].

• Aspirants should check whether that target was met before quoting it as achieved.

• Central help is fixed per tonne

• The Centre gives ₹550 per tonne of legacy waste, covering 25%, 33% or 50% of project cost depending on city type [7][8].
• Cities with the biggest dumps carry the biggest bills. They are often the cities with the most stretched budgets.

10. Workers Still Die in Sewers While Cities Win Awards

• Worker welfare is a scored indicator, but the deaths have not stopped
• SS gives marks for sanitation workers' welfare [1].

• The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) reports that 332 sanitation workers died cleaning sewers and septic tanks in 18 States/UTs between January 2021 and June 2026 [9].

• Very few cases lead to action

• Only 193 FIRs (First Information Reports, the first step in a police case) were registered against agencies and officials in five years [9].

• If employers rarely face a case, they have little reason to switch to machines and safety gear.

• Nobody has checked if mechanised cleaning actually happens

• The government told Parliament that no separate evaluation of mechanised sewer cleaning in States/UTs has been done [9].

• So a city can score on 'mechanised desludging' in SS while there is no national check on whether workers are still sent into sewers by hand.

• Why this matters for GS-IV

• A city cannot be called fully 'clean' if the cleaning puts human lives at risk. Dignity of labour is a test of the whole system, not one indicator among many.

11. The Money Is There, the Spending Is Not

• Most of the central share remained unspent close to the deadline
• In August 2025 the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs found that SBM-U 2.0 still had to spend about 68% of its central share of ₹76,760 crore. The mission was due to end in 2026 [12].

• The Ministry replied that sanitation is a State subject [12]. This means the Centre funds and ranks, but cities and States must build and run the plants.

• No targets, so no clear way to judge failure

• In 2023 the Committee found that the Ministry was not setting physical or financial targets under SBM-U, and asked it to do so [15].

• Without year-wise targets, the yearly ranking becomes the main measure of progress. A ranking only shows how a city did against other cities, not against what was promised.

• Built capacity is not the same as used capacity

• The Committee noted that existing sewage treatment plants (STPs) used only 49% of their capacity in 2020-21 [16].
• Plants are built, but sewer connections and running costs lag behind. This is the 'used water' part of the value chain that SS now scores.

12. Who Checks the Cities' Own Claims

• The same worry has come up before, with toilets
• In 2018 the Standing Committee on Urban Development asked that open defecation free (ODF) status be confirmed by independent agencies, not by local bodies declaring it themselves [13].
• PRS noted that only 1,276 of the 4,320 cities declared ODF had toilets with water, maintenance and hygiene [14].

• The lesson: a 'declared' status and a 'working' service can be very different.

• SS has improved checking, but audits still find gaps

• SS now uses citizen feedback and GPS-monitored digital checks [1]. This is a real improvement on self-declaration.
• But CAG's physical checks, where auditors visit sites themselves, keep finding mixed waste where sorting is reported [10][11].
• A survey visit sees a city on certain days. An audit looks at records and sites over a longer period.

13. What Should Change Before the Next Survey

• MoHUA should give more weight to segregation quality, checked on site
• CAG found that new two-section vehicles were still carrying mixed waste [10].

• Scores should reward what reaches the plant already sorted, not just collection coverage.

• MoHUA should report legacy waste by tonnes left, not sites cleared

• 214 sites hold about 80% of what remains [7][8]. Progress on these sites should be shown separately from the overall count.

• The Ministry of Social Justice and NCSK should evaluate mechanised cleaning State by State

• No such evaluation exists yet [9]. MoHUA could link a city's welfare score to zero sewer deaths and to FIRs being filed when a death happens.

• MoHUA should set yearly physical and financial targets, as the Standing Committee recommended

• This follows the Committee's 2023 recommendation [15] and the August 2025 concern about unspent funds [12].

• Follow the 2018 independent verification principle

• The Standing Committee's call for independent checks on ODF claims [13] should apply to every SS indicator that a city reports about itself.

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 332 sanitation workers died cleaning sewers and septic tanks in 18 States/UTs, Jan 2021–Jun 2026; only 193 FIRs in five years [9]
• Data: About 25 crore tonnes of legacy waste across about 2,479 dumpsites; 214 sites hold nearly 80% of what remains [7][8]
• Data: 68% of SBM-U 2.0's ₹76,760 crore central share was still to be spent as of August 2025 [12]
• Data: STPs used only 49% of their capacity in 2020-21 [16]
• Report/Committee: Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, Sixth Report (August 2025): underspending [12]; Standing Committee on Urban Development (2018): independent verification of ODF claims [13]
• Report/Committee: CAG Performance Audit of Solid Waste Management in ULBs, Karnataka (Report No. 4 of 2018): source segregation not followed in 32 of 35 ULBs [10]
• Scheme: NAMASTE (2023-24): mechanised and safe sewer cleaning, linked to the SafaiMitra welfare indicator [9]
• Scheme: Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme (Nov 2025): 'Lakshya Zero Dumpsites', ₹550 per tonne central assistance [7][8]

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-II:
• Government policies and interventions;
• devolution to local bodies (ULBs);

• cooperative and competitive federalism.

• GS-III: Environmental pollution and degradation; solid and liquid waste management; infrastructure.

• GS-IV: Civic virtues; behavioural change; dignity of labour (SafaiMitras).
• Possible question stems: 1. "Ranking-based competition among cities has transformed urban sanitation, but rankings alone cannot sustain behavioural change." Critically examine this with reference to Swachh Survekshan. 2. Discuss how peer-learning models like the Swachh Shehar Jodi can address uneven capacity among Urban Local Bodies. 3. Moving from 'visible cleanliness' to managing the full sanitation value chain is the real test of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). Analyse.

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• SBM-Urban 2.0 / Garbage Free City Star Rating: the targets that SS measures against [5].
• AMRUT 2.0: launched together with SBM-U 2.0. Covers water security and used water [4].
• Swachhata Hi Seva campaign: the citizen participation side of the same mission [1].
• 74th Constitutional Amendment / ULB finances: ULBs are the units being ranked. Check this against its own source.
• Solid Waste and Plastic Waste Management Rules: the legal basis for segregation and processing duties. Check against its own source.
• NAMASTE and sanitation workers' safety: links to the SafaiMitra welfare indicator.
• Namami Gange / river-front cleanliness: links to the new River Front category.
• Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) / ODF Plus: the rural counterpart, often confused with SBM-U.

17. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Swachh Survekshan (Polity): The article is about this annual city cleanliness ranking and its 2025-26 awards.
• Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (Polity): The umbrella urban sanitation mission that Swachh Survekshan measures; SBM-U 2.0 targets and outlay are in the note.
• Swachh Bharat Mission (Geography): Gives the 2014 background and aims of the national mission behind the survey.
• Urban local bodies (Polity): ULBs are the units being ranked and must run the plants and services.
• 74th Constitutional Amendment Act 1992 (Polity): Source of ULBs' constitutional status and their functions, including sanitation.
• Solid waste management (Economy): Segregation, collection, processing and the 16% to 80% rise are central to scoring.
• Legacy waste (Geography): Old dumpsites and remediation targets form a major part of the note's analysis.
• Competitive federalism (Polity): Ranking cities and States to push improvement is a classic example of competitive federalism.
• AMRUT (Polity): Launched alongside SBM-U 2.0; covers sewerage and used water, part of the value chain.
• National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (Polity): Source of the sewer-death data; links to the sanitation workers' welfare indicator.
• Comptroller and Auditor General (Polity): CAG audits are cited to show gaps between reported and actual segregation.
• Performance audit (Polity): Explains the type of audit used to test whether the programme's results are real.
• PRAGATI (Polity): Name resembles PRAGATI-50, but this is a different platform; revise to avoid confusing them.

18. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• SS vs SBM: SS is the assessment tool. SBM is the umbrella programme [1].
• Super Swachh League vs population categories: the League is for past top performers. The Swachh Shehar awards cover the 5 population categories [1].
• Jodi scoring: the combined mentor and mentee score counts, not the mentor's score alone. The mentors are 2024-25 awardees [1].
• Edition numbers: 2025-26 is the 10th edition, and 2016 had 73 cities [1]. The 2024-25 awards were in July 2025 [3], while the 2025-26 awards were in November 2026 [1].
• Wrong ministry: Swachh Survekshan (urban) is under MoHUA, not the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (rural).