The recent news has brought to light a new category of awards known as ‘Prerak Dauur Samman’, which is set to be a part of the well-known Swachh Survekshan for the year 2021.
Understanding the Prerak Dauur Samman
The Prerak Dauur Samman entails five additional sub-categories, namely Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze) and Aarohi (Aspiring). In the previously held Swachh Survekshan in 2020, cities were evaluated based on ‘population category’. However, the criterion for 2021 will take into account the performance of six select indicator-wise performances.
These indices include Segregation of waste into Wet, Dry and Hazard categories, Processing capacity against wet waste generated, Processing and recycling of wet and dry waste, Construction and Demolition waste processing, Percentage of waste going to landfills, and Sanitation status of cities.
Integrated SBM-Urban MIS Portal
An Integrated Management Information System (MIS) portal was also introduced. The objective of this portal is to amalgamate the various digital initiatives into a single framework ensuring a unified, hassle-free experience for states and cities.
About Swachh Survekshan
Swachh Survekshan is an initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission which conducts annual surveys to assess cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation levels in cities and towns all across India. This ranking exercise is carried out by the Government of India to evaluate rural and urban areas on their cleanliness levels and active implementation of Swachhata mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner.
Swachh Survekshan-Urban is managed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs whereas Swachh Survekshan-Rural is conducted by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Up until 2018, it was supervised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation which later merged with the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to form a new Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2019.
Past Editions of Swachh Survekshan
The first Swachh Survekshan in 2016 evaluated 73 cities, which expanded to 434 cities in 2017. The year 2018 saw the ranking of 4203 cities, making it the world’s largest cleanliness survey at that time. The 2019 survey ranked 4237 cities, being the first of its kind entirely digital survey, completed within a record time of 28 days.
Swachh Survekshan 2020 and the Swachh Survekshan League
Swachh Survekshan 2020 upheld the momentum with a massive participation from approximately 1.87 crore citizens. The Swachh Survekshan League was also introduced in 2019 to ensure the sustainability of on-ground performance of cities. This league conducts a quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns, with these quarterly assessments accounting for 25% weightage in the annual survey.
Notable Rankings
The Swachh Survekshan has seen some notable winners over the years. Mysuru won the award for the Cleanest City of India in the Swachh Survekshan 2016. On the other hand, Indore has consistently retained the top position in the Swachh Survekshan for three consecutive years (2017, 2018 and 2019).
This is indeed a great initiative to motivate and encourage cities to work towards cleanliness and hygiene.
