Swachh Survekshan 2025-26: President Murmu to honour India's cleanest cities at 10th edition
Synopsis
India's urban cleanliness rankings hit a milestone: the 10th edition of Swachh Survekshan now covers 4,751 cities — up from 73 in 2016 — and President Droupadi Murmu will personally honour the top performers at Vigyan Bhawan. This year also marks the debut of the 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' awards, recognising a new peer-learning model linking 70 mentor cities with 191 mentees across 33 States and UTs.
Key Takeaways
President Droupadi Murmu will confer Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 awards at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi .
The 10th edition covers over 4,751 cities , up from just 73 urban local bodies in 2016 .
ULBs were evaluated on 43 indicators across 10 assessment areas by more than 3,000 trained assessors .
The 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' initiative, launched on 27 September 2025 , links 70 mentor cities with 191 mentee cities across 33 States/UTs .
New focus areas include Urban River Fronts , Coastlines , tourist and heritage hotspots , and school-level behaviour change programmes.
The entire assessment process was fully digital with real-time GPS-enabled monitoring .
President Droupadi Murmu is set to confer awards at the 10th edition of Swachh Survekshan, honouring India's cleanest cities under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, according to an official statement released on Monday, 9 November 2026. The ceremony will be held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, in the presence of Union Minister Manohar Lal and Minister of State Tokhan Sahu of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
What the Awards Recognise
Organised under the aegis of the Department of Urban Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Swachh Survekshan (SS) Awards 2025-26 celebrate outstanding contributions to urban cleanliness and waste management. This year's ceremony also spotlights top performers from the 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' initiative — a first-of-its-kind urban waste management mentorship programme that has fostered peer learning between 70 mentor cities and 191 mentee cities across 33 States and Union Territories.
The 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' initiative was launched by Union Minister Manohar Lal on 27 September 2025, with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between all participating mentor and mentee cities at the launch event to formalise the programme.
Scale and Scope of Swachh Survekshan
'Swachh Survekshan' has expanded dramatically since its inception, growing from 73 urban local bodies (ULBs) in 2016 to coverage of over 4,751 cities in its latest edition. In the 10th edition, ULBs were assessed across 43 indicators spanning 10 key evaluation areas, with more than 3,000 trained assessors conducting on-ground evaluations supported by real-time GPS-enabled monitoring.
The assessment framework remained fully digital and transparent, with rigorous quality checks at every stage — from evidence submission to final verification. This comes amid the Centre's sustained emphasis on outcome-based urban governance, where data integrity and citizen feedback are increasingly central to rankings.
Key Enhancements in This Year's Edition
The 10th edition introduces several new focus areas, including greater weight on citizen feedback, expanded coverage of Urban River Fronts, Coastlines, and Water Bodies, and dedicated indicators on the prevention of open defecation and open urination. Additionally, cleanliness of tourist and heritage hotspots and behaviour change initiatives in schools have been brought under the evaluation lens for the first time.
'The SS 2025-26 awards serve as a celebration of the collective achievements of cities and States in the past decade and a renewed commitment to sustain on-ground achievements,' the official statement noted.
Significance of the 10th Edition
Marking a decade of Swachh Survekshan, the 2025-26 edition is considered a milestone in India's urban sanitation journey. The survey has evolved from a basic cleanliness ranking into a comprehensive governance audit covering waste management, water body preservation, and community behavioural change. Notably, the peer-learning model introduced through 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' marks a structural shift — moving from competitive ranking alone to collaborative capacity-building across cities of varying scale and resources.
All eyes will now be on which cities claim the top honours, and whether the 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' mentor-mentee partnerships have meaningfully lifted performance among smaller urban bodies.
Point of View
Swachh Survekshan has become India's most expansive urban governance audit — but the real question is whether scale has translated into durable behavioural change or merely better data-gathering. The jump from 73 to 4,751 cities is impressive on paper; the introduction of 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' suggests the Centre recognises that competitive ranking alone does not lift the bottom tier. The peer-learning model is a structurally sounder intervention, but its effectiveness depends on whether mentorship agreements are substantive or ceremonial MoUs. Citizen feedback's growing weight in the scoring framework is encouraging, though independent verification of that feedback loop remains unaddressed publicly.
NationPress
9 Nov 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Swachh Survekshan 2025-26?
Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 is the 10th annual urban cleanliness and sanitation survey conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. It evaluated over 4,751 cities across 43 indicators and 10 assessment areas, with awards to be conferred by President Droupadi Murmu at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Where and when will the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 awards be held?
The awards ceremony will be held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, with President Droupadi Murmu presiding. The event was announced on 9 November 2026, though an exact ceremony date was not specified in the official statement.
What is the 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' initiative?
'Swachh Shehar Jodi' is India's first urban waste management mentorship and peer-learning programme, launched by Union Minister Manohar Lal on 27 September 2025. It pairs 70 mentor cities with 191 mentee cities across 33 States and Union Territories, with MoUs signed to formalise the partnerships.
How has Swachh Survekshan grown over the years?
Swachh Survekshan started with just 73 urban local bodies in 2016 and has expanded to cover over 4,751 cities in its 10th edition in 2025-26. The survey also introduced new parameters such as Urban River Fronts, Coastlines, tourist and heritage hotspot cleanliness, and school-level behaviour change.
Who oversees Swachh Survekshan?
Swachh Survekshan is conducted under the Department of Urban Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Union Minister Manohar Lal and Minister of State Tokhan Sahu head the ministry and were present at the awards event.
