Swachh Survekshan 2020 is the 5th edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey conducted by the Ministry. Swachh Survekshan 2020 is evaluated for each quarter on the basis of monthly updating of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) online Management Information System (MIS) by cities along with citizen's validation on the 12 service level progress indicators. Swachh Survekshan (Cleanliness survey) is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India.

The process of ranking cities and town of India on the basis of cleanliness was first conducted in 2016, which covered 73 cities. The second and third round of the survey in 2017 and 2018 widened the coverage of the assessment to 434 cities with a population of one lakh and above and 4,203 cities respectively.

Objectives of Swachh Survekshan:

1. The annual cleanliness survey aims to encourage large scale participation of citizens in cleanliness drives.
2. It aims to ensure the sustainability of initiatives taken towards garbage-free and open defecation free cities.
3. It aims to create awareness among all sections of the society regarding the importance of working together towards making towns and cities a better place to live in.
4. Sustaining the on-ground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance when it comes to cleanliness.
    

SS 2020 parameters:

The focus of the survey was on wastewater treatment, faucal sludge management. The survey also focused on the implementation of ODF+, water plus and ODF+ and ODF++ protocols of the ministry of housing and urban affairs.

Top Performers

On 20th August 2020, Indore is announced as the cleanest city in India by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. Indore is hailed as the country's cleanest city for the fourth consecutive year. As per the recent survey, while Gujarat's Surat bagged the second spot, Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai ranked third. Varanasi was adjudged the ‘best Ganga town' in the central government's cleanliness survey.

Some important Key points:

• It was launched as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which aims to make India clean and free of open defecation by 2 October 2019.
• SS League 2020 is the fifth edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey conducted by MoHUA.
• It is a cleanliness survey that helps in competitive federalism.
• The first survey was undertaken in 2016 and covered 73 cities; by 2019 the survey had grown to cover 4237 cities and was said to be the largest cleanliness survey in the world.
• The surveys are carried out by the Quality Council of India.
• The annual cleanliness survey aims to encourage large scale participation of citizens in cleanliness drives.
• It aims to ensure the sustainability of initiatives taken towards garbage-free and open defecation free cities.
• It aims to create awareness among all sections of society regarding the importance of working together towards making towns and cities a better place to live in.
• The survey also aims to foster healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating a cleaner cities.

Conclusion
Since the first Swachh Survekshan rankings began, there is a healthy competition among states to grab the top spot. As such, cities across the country have taken cleanliness seriously. But still, there is a lot to do to make our cities truly clean States should ask for extended funding under such schemes to create the infrastructure for a future-focused clean-up. Simultaneously, they should institute measures to reduce waste. Retooling Swachh Survekshan 2020 to go beyond perception management and adopt sustainability is essential to make it a genuine contest.

End-Notes:

1. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/swachh-bharat-mission-urban