Ahead Of Swachh Survekshan 2020 Results, A Lookback At The Five Year Journey Of Swachh Survekshan

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon announce the results of the Swachh Survekshan 2020 – the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey of urban India. Swachh Survekshan 2020, claims to be the world’s largest cleanliness survey covering 4,242 cities, 62 Cantonment Boards and 92 Ganga Towns based on their cleanliness quotient. As part of the special programme ‘Swachh Mahotsav’, the Prime Minister will hand out 129 awards to the top performing cities and states. PM Modi will also interact with select beneficiaries, swachhagrahis (clean India warriors) and Safai Karmis (sanitation workers) under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U). The cities have received the invitation for the virtual award ceremony and the suspense which city will bag the title of India’s cleanest city will be over shortly. Here’s a look at the five year journey of the Swachh Survekshan.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Will Indore Win The Cleanest City Of India Title For The Fourth Time?

The Origins Of Swachh Survekshan

On October 2, 2014, Prime Minister Modi repackaged the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, an existing sanitation programme launched in 2012, into Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). The aim of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was to eradicate open defecation and provide 100 per cent access to toilets by 2019. To achieve this stiff goal in a short span of five years, the SBM was introduced as two sub-missions – Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).

In an effort to encourage cities to improve the level of cleanliness, sanitation and hygiene and at the same time generate large scale citizen participation in Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), in 2016, the Ministry of Urban Development commissioned an extensive survey called Swachh Survekshan.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Poor Waste Management And Citizen’s Feedback Likely To Pull Down Bengaluru’s Ranking

Swachh Survekshan 2016

The survey, the first for Swachh Bharat Mission, was conducted by the Quality Council of India and the methodology, process and outcome indicators of the survey were designed by the Ministry of Urban Development. The first edition of the survey assessed the work done by 73 cities and urban local bodies (ULBs) in constructing individual household toilets, community and public toilet seats, door-to-door collection of garbage and waste management and treatment. Cities were given two months preparatory time.

Swachh Survekshan 2016 was conducted from January 5 – 20. A team of 110 assessors was deployed on the ground to conduct the survey.

The cities were ranked on three parameters – service level status data (carrying 1,000 marks) that involved data collection with regard to the construction of toilets, waste management and treatment, among other things; independent observation data (500 marks); citizen feedback data (500 marks).

Based on the scores obtained by the cities in all the three parts of the survey, Karnataka’s Mysuru topped the charts followed by Chandigarh and Tiruchirapalli. Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut was the worst performing city.

Swachh Survekshan 2016: Top 5 Cleanest And Dirtiest Cities Of India

Also Read: 2016, The Year That Was: Highlights Of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan After 2 Years

Swachh Survekshan 2017

The second edition of the survey expanded its scope and assessed 434 cities and towns, a six fold jump from year one of the survey. In 2017 also the survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India. The team of assessors surveyed more than 17,500 locations, physically inspecting 2,680 residential locations and additional same number of commercial locations and 2,582 commercial and public toilets. The survey was carried out in the month of January and February and the results were declared on May 4.

The cities were ranked out of a total of 2,000 marks in which 900 marks were for municipal bodies’ data, 500 marks for direct observation and 600 for direct citizen feedback.

Among all the sanitation components, the maximum weightage was given to collection and transportation of solid waste, followed by progress on open defecation free (ODF) front.

In 2017, Madhya Pradesh’s Indore emerged as India’s cleanest city for the first time, with Bhopal in the second position. The previous year’s top rank holders – Mysuru and Chandigarh slipped to fifth and eleventh position respectively.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2017 Rankings Of India’s Cleanest And Dirtiest Cities: Find Out Your City’s Rank

Swachh Survekshan 2018

In 2018 for the first time the survey covered 4,203 cities, a 10-fold increase from 2017 version of the survey. The government called it the world’s largest cleanliness survey. The marking was increased from 2,000 to 4,000; 1200 marks were reserved for direct observation, 1400 marks each were dedicated to citizen feedback and service level progress.

Swachh Survekshan 2017 vs 2018 assessment criteria

The parameters used to evaluate service level progress was also upgraded and six factors were considered:

– collection and transportation of municipal solid waste,
– processing and disposal of municipal solid waste,
– sanitation related progress,
– Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities,
– capacity building,
– innovation and best practices, WAS introduced for the first time.

Swachh Survekshan 2017 vs 2018

500 cities with a population of more than 1 lakh were ranked on national level and 3,541 cities with less than 1 lakh population got state and regional ranking.

The assessment programme went on from January 4 to March 10 and the results were declared on May 16. Madhya Pradesh’s Indore retained the top spot followed by Bhopal. Chandigarh showed improvement and moved up from rank 11 in 2017 to the position of the third cleanest city in the country.

Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh found a special mention as the fastest moving big city of the Swachh Survekshan 2018, moving up to Rank 36 from the previous 351, in 2017.

Jharkhand was declared the best performing state, followed by Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, in Swachh Survekshan 2018.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2018 Results: Top 10 Highlights

Swachh Survekshan 2019

Keeping up with the idea of improving its standard and methodology each year, in 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs introduced 100 per cent digital Swachh Survekshan. The government decided to go paperless and conduct the survey digitally via online management information system (MIS).

The weightage was again revised and in 2019, the cities were ranked out of a total of 5,000 marks. The data was equally collected from four different sources – citizen feedback, direct observation, service level progress and certification for garbage and open defecation free cities. The new entrant in the marksheet was ‘certification’ which is broadly divided into two categories – garbage free cities and open defecation free (ODF) cities.

Also Read: Government Launches Smart Star-Rating For Garbage Free Cities: 5 Things You Should Know

In its fourth year, the survey was conducted across 4,237 towns and cities and 62 Cantonment Boards, impacting around 40 crore people. For the same, 2,500 assessors and 200 officials were trained. As part of the 100 per cent digital and paperless Swachh Survekshan 2019, 4.5 lakh documents were uploaded by cities. The first-of-its-kind completely digital survey was completed in a record time of 28 days.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2019 Results: Here Are India’s Cleanest Cities

For the third time in a row, Madhya Pradesh’s Indore bagged the title of ‘India’s Cleanest City’. Coming in at number two was Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur that was declared India’s best city in ‘Innovation and Best Practices’ (population 1 – 3 lakh) category. Karnataka’s Mysuru, ‘India’s Cleanest Medium City’ as per Swachh Survekshan 2018, won the third position.

Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra stood as the top three performing states in terms of cleanliness quotient.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2019: Here’s What Indore Did To Retain Its ‘Cleanest City Of India’ Title

Swachh Survekshan 2020

In Swachh Survekshan 2020, in order to ensure continuous assessment and sustainability of on-ground performance of cities, the Government introduced Swachh Survekshan League, a quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns conducted across three quarters, with 25 per cent weightage integrated into the final Swachh Survekshan results for the year.

The initial assessment will be conducted in three quarters – April to June, July to September and October to December. Each quarter will carry a weightage of 2000 marks.

In every quarter, cities and towns will be evaluated on the basis of monthly updation of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban online dashboard or Management Information System (MIS) by cities along with citizen’s validation on the 12 service level progress (which includes collection and transportation of municipal solid waste, processing and disposal of municipal solid waste, IEC, among others) indicators through outbound calls. These two parameters will together determine the quarterly ranking of cities, Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA had said at the launch of Swachh Survekshan league 2020.

Also Read: ‘Swachh Survekshan League 2020’ Launched, Cities And Towns To Be Ranked On Cleanliness Every Quarter

Apart from Swachh Survekshan league, the overall survey carries 6,000 marks equally divided into citizen feedback, direct observation, certification for garbage and open defecation free (ODF), ODF plus and ODF plus plus cities, and service level progress (1,300 marks) and the average score of Swachh Survekshan league 2020 (200 marks).

The results of the first and second quarters of Swachh Survekshan League 2020 saw Indore hold on to the title of India’s cleanest city. So it will be interesting to see if the final results will spring a surprise winner this year, or will Indore retain its crown for the fourth time in the row.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Indore Hopes To Win The Title Of India’s Cleanest City Yet Again, Here’s What All The City Has Done

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.