Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 Awards | 18 Jul 2025

Source: IE 

Why in News? 

The President of India conferred Swachh Survekshan Awards 2024-25 (9th edition) hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in New Delhi. 

What are the Key Highlights of Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 Awards? 

• Revamped Format & Super Swachh League:  To ensure a level playing field and acknowledge consistent top performers like Indore (ranked No. 1 for 7 consecutive years), MoHUA introduced a new category- Super Swachh League (SSL) Cities.  
  • These SSL cities were excluded from regular rankings to promote fairness and encourage emerging cities. 

• City Classification Based on Population: For the first time, city classification based on population was introduced, enabling fair comparison and targeted improvement across Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Cities were ranked in 5 categories: 
  • Very Small Cities (< 20,000) 
  • Small Cities (20,000 – 50,000) 
  • Medium Cities (50,000 – 3 lakh) 
  • Big Cities (3 – 10 lakh) 
  • Million Plus Cities (> 10 lakh) 

• Special Awards: 
  • Recognition for Special Initiative of Swachh Mahakumbh 2025: Prayagraj (for waste management during the Mahakumbh 2025) 
  • Cleanest Ganga Town: Prayagraj 
  • Safaimitra Surakshit Shehar Awards: Visakhapatnam, Jabalpur, and Gorakhpur recognized for ensuring the safety and dignity of sanitation workers. 
  • Cleanest Cantonment Board: Secunderabad Cantonment 
  • Promising Swachh Shehar of State:  35 cities across 33 States/UTs were recognized as “Promising Swachh Shehar” for their notable progress in urban sanitation.  
    • Key cities included Rajahmundry, Patna, Guwahati, Pimpri Chinchwad, Agra, and Bhubaneswar. 

What is Swachh Survekshan under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)? 

Swachh Survekshan 

• About: Swachh Survekshan, conducted by the MoHUA since 2016, is the world’s largest urban sanitation and cleanliness survey under Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban (SBM-U). 
  • Swachh Survekshan Awards are annual rankings and recognitions given to cities and urban local bodies (ULBs) under the Swachh Survekshan. 
• Objective: It aims to foster citizen participation, generate awareness on sanitation, and promote competitive federalism through performance benchmarking. 
• Key Features: 
  • Launched with just 73 cities, it has expanded to cover 4,589 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the 2024–25 edition. 
  • Cities are evaluated based on parameters such as waste segregation, processing, sanitation in public spaces, and citizen feedback. 
  • The 9^th edition was conducted from April 2024 to March 2025. 
• Swachh Survekshan 2025: Under the revamped framework of Swachh Survekshan 2025, indicators have been simplified and restructured into 10 comprehensive sections, with a special focus on tourist and high-footfall areas and the sanitation of public spaces. 
  • The annual theme for 2025 is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (3R)”, promoting circular economy principles in line with the Jaipur Declaration adopted at the 12^th Regional 3R and Circular Economy Forum (March 2025). 
  • Additionally, new indicators have been introduced for Project Grounding and City Transport Unit (CTU) transformation, along with the launch of school-level assessments to inculcate Swachhta values among the youth. 

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) 

• About: Launched on 2nd October 2014, the SBM is a nationwide cleanliness drive, divided into SBM-Gramin (under the Ministry of Jal Shakti) and SBM-Urban (under MoHUA), with funding support from the Swachh Bharat Kosh for CSR and philanthropic contributions. 
• Objective: The mission’s initial goal was to make India Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2nd October 2019, through large-scale construction of toilets and behavioral change campaigns. 
  • Phase-II (SBM-Gramin) was launched in 2020–21 with the aim to achieve ODF Plus status by 2024–25 through solid and liquid waste management in rural areas. 
  • SBM-Urban 2.0, introduced in 2021, focuses on garbage-free cities, faecal sludge and plastic waste management, greywater treatment, and capacity building to sustain urban sanitation outcomes.