Why in news?
President Droupadi Murmu presented the Swachh Survekshan 2025–26 awards in New Delhi on 11 November 2026. Navi Mumbai led the Super Swachh League, while Greater Visakhapatnam led the million-plus population category. The survey assesses the sanitation services of urban local bodies, including waste collection, processing, public cleanliness and citizen feedback. Its categories recognise different city sizes and settings. Reading the results through those categories shows which services were assessed and how the winners were grouped. The awards also recognised city partnerships that help municipal teams learn from one another.
What the survey examines
Swachh Survekshan is the annual urban cleanliness survey conducted under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. It began in 2016 with 73 cities. The ministry says the 2025–26 edition covered 4,751 cities and received feedback from 2.70 crore citizens.
An urban local body is the municipal institution responsible for services within a city or town. Cleanliness depends on a connected service chain. Waste must be separated, collected, transported and processed. Toilets, used-water management, workers' welfare and the handling of complaints also affect how sanitation services function.
How cities were assessed
The tenth edition used 43 indicators across 10 domains. These covered the waste-management chain, visible cleanliness, access to sanitation, mechanised desludging, institutional arrangements, used-water management, awareness, sanitation workers and citizen feedback. Desludging means removing accumulated sludge from facilities such as septic tanks.
The ministry reports that more than 3,000 trained assessors undertook field evaluations, supported by location-enabled monitoring. Cities submitted evidence for checking, while residents supplied feedback. These methods examine both the municipal system and people's experience of the service.
Reading the leading results
The Super Swachh League recognises sustained cleanliness performance. Navi Mumbai, Surat and Vijayawada occupied its leading three positions. In the separate category for cities with more than one million people, Greater Visakhapatnam, Jabalpur and Lucknow led the results.
Population categories let the survey recognise cities of different sizes. The awards also included riverfront towns, coastal towns and Himalayan cities. Those settings bring sanitation services into contact with rivers, beaches, steep terrain or seasonal visitor pressure.
Rewa, Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and Varanasi led the riverfront-town category. Puri, Alappuzha and Ratnagiri led the coastal-town category. Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Shopian were the leading Himalayan cities.
Why separating waste helps the service chain
India's Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 require four streams of source segregation: wet waste, dry waste, sanitary waste and special-care waste. Source segregation means separating waste where it is generated, before collection mixes the materials together.
Wet waste includes food scraps and other suitable organic material, which can undergo composting or biological treatment. Dry materials such as paper, plastic, metal and glass go to material recovery facilities for sorting and recycling. Sanitary waste requires separate secure wrapping, while special-care waste needs designated collection or authorised handling.
These streams give the collection service different materials to route to suitable facilities. Separating recyclable paper from food waste, for example, helps preserve its usefulness for recovery. The practical task continues through transport, facility operation and the treatment of what remains.
Learning between municipal teams
The Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative pairs experienced cities with cities seeking to improve their sanitation services. The ministry reports 70 mentor cities and 191 mentee cities. Teams share practices and work on service improvements, linking the performance of the two partners.
Ahmedabad–Sanand placed first in this category, followed by Indore–Depalpur and Tirupati–Kuppam. The award uses the combined score of a mentor and its paired mentee. This gives both cities a role in the recognised result and places attention on the transfer of working methods.
Conclusion
The awards recognise a wide municipal task: keeping waste streams moving towards appropriate treatment, maintaining sanitation facilities and responding to residents. City partnerships extend this work by sharing practical methods between municipal teams.
Sources
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 11 November 2026: awards, categories, assessment and city partnerships
- DD News, 12 November 2026: ceremony, city results and municipal assessment
- President's Secretariat: citizen participation and the Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative
- Environment Ministry, 28 January 2026: four waste streams and their handling under the 2026 rules