Swachh Survekshan 2024-25: Highlights, Rankings & Awards under Reduce-Reuse-Recycle Theme

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With a renewed emphasis on sustainability, Swachh Survekshan 2024–25, India’s largest urban sanitation survey, is advancing the goal of a “Garbage-Free India.” This edition, which is centered on the transformative Reduce-Reuse-Recycle (RRR) theme, highlights solid waste management, behavioral change, and circular economy practices. In addition to assessing how clean the city is, the survey also honors creativity, community involvement, and environmentally friendly waste management practices. Updated city rankings, cleanliness awards, and sustainable waste management programs are just a few of the ways that Swachh Survekshan 2024–25 supports India’s progress toward SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and supports Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0.

Highlights of the 2024–2025 Awards

There are five levels of population-based classification: Big Cities (3-10 lakh), Medium Cities (50000-3 lakh), Small Cities (20000-50000), Very Small Cities (<20,000), and Million Plus Cities (>10 lakh).

In all, 78 awards were given out in the four categories listed below:

• Indore, Surat, and Navi Mumbai joined the exclusive Super Swachh League. • Super Swachh League Cities (New Category Introduced): Cities that exhibit exceptional performance according to their prior Swachh Survekshan Ranking.
• The top three cities in terms of Swachh Shehar across the five tier population groups were Ahmedabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow.
• Special Categories: SafaiMitra Suraksha, Mahakumbh, Ganga Towns, and Cantonment Boards.

34 cities in states and territories received Promising Clean Cities Awards. Through the Swachh City Partnership, 78 of the best-performing cities in each state will adopt and coach one underperforming city.

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About Swachh Survekshan

Under the auspices of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), it was launched in 2016.

Institutions involved: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) conducts the survey once a year. 

• A third-party organization will validate the field assessment of the data that ULBs have submitted.
• To raise awareness of the significance of improving towns and cities as places to live and to promote widespread citizen participation.

Certification (based on ODF+/ODF++/Water+ status) and Swachh Survekshan (data from ULBs, document and field assessments) with 80% and 20% weighting, respectively.

Mains:

Question: “Swachh Survekshan 2024–25 reflects a shift from infrastructure creation to sustainable waste management and behavioral change.” Critically analyze the effectiveness of urban cleanliness surveys in improving urban governance and public service delivery.

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Mains PYQs:

Question: What are the impediments in disposing the huge quantities of discarded solid waste which are continuously being generated? How do we remove safely the toxic wastes that have been accumulating in our habitable environment? (UPSC IAS 2021)

MCQs

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Question: With reference to Swachh Survekshan 2024–25, consider the following statements:

1. It is conducted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
2. The 2024–25 edition introduced a new category called the Super Swachh League Cities.
3. The rankings are based solely on field assessment data collected by a third-party organization.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 2 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 2 only

(d) 2 and 3 only

Answer: (a) 2 only

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