Government launches 'Swachh Survekshan 2021'; states also to be ranked

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday launched the 'Swachh Survekshan 2021' -- the sixth edition of the annual cleanliness survey -- and said the exercise this year will focus on wastewater treatment and other parameters. According to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, state ranking will also be announced under the survey, to be measured based on their fund utilisation and support to respective local bodies, among others.

At the event, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Puri said that every year, the 'Swachh Survekshan' is redesigned innovatively to ensure the process becomes more robust with focus on sustaining the behaviour change.

"Like in the last year, keeping in mind the ministry's efforts towards ensuring sustainability of the sanitation value chain, the SS 2021 indicators focus on parameters pertaining to wastewater treatment and reuse along with faecal sludge," he said.

The minister also announced new category of awards titled 'Prerak Daaur Samman' as part of 'Swachh Survekshan 2021'.

The Prerak Daaur Samman has five additional sub -- categories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring) - with top three cities being recognised in each.

The survey will categorise cities on the basis of six indicator-wise performance criteria -- segregation of waste into wet, dry and hazard categories; processing capacity against wet waste generated; processing and recycling of wet and dry waste; construction & demolition (C&D) waste processing; percentage of waste going to landfills; and sanitation status of cities.

The ministry said that 'Swachh Survekshan 2020' had seen an unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens.

The 2018 cleanliness survey, which became the world's largest cleanliness survey, had ranked 4,203 cities.

The 'Swachh Survekshan 2019' which not only covered 4,237 cities but was also the first-of-its-kind completely digital survey completed in a record time of 28 days, it said in a statement.