MoHUA Launches Swachh Survekshan 2023 under Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0

In a virtual event today, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), launched the eighth edition of Swachh Survekshan (SS) – SS 2023 under Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0. State Principal Secretaries for Urban Development, State Mission Directors for Swachh Bharat Mission Urban, Municipal Commissioners, and Executive Officers from Cities attended the event.

Swachh Survekshan 2023 is curated to achieve circularity in waste management, with the theme of 'Waste to Wealth' as its driving philosophy. The survey would prioritize the 3Rs principle of reduce, recycle, and reuse.

Manoj Joshi, speaking at the launch event, stated that the Swachh Survekshan has evolved into an inspiration tool rather than just an assessment tool. This largest survey ever conducted has resulted in significant changes on the ground, with cities performing well having a sense of pride. He stated that the Swachh Survekshan is important not only for top performers but also for underachievers, who must take steps to rise to the occasion and do the necessary.

Joshi stated that the parameters of the Swachh Survekshan have been designed in such a way, particularly in the most recent round, to nudge everyone to move in a new direction, enabling all-year cleanliness. The Secretary emphasized the importance of citizen feedback, saying that citizens living anywhere in the country aspire and deserve a clean environment.

Swachh Survekshan has grown to become the world's largest urban sanitation survey. The seventh edition of Swachh Survekshan, titled "Azadi @ 75 Swachh Survekshan 2022," was a watershed Survekshan because it coincided with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

The SS 2022 survey included 4,355 cities, 85,860 wards, 2.12 lakh locations visited, 5.5 lakh documents assessed, 1.14 crores in citizen feedback recorded, 4.77 lakhs in citizen validation, 23.38 lakhs in photos and videos collected as evidence, and 17.24 lakhs data points collected. The SS 2022 survey is now complete, and the results are being prepared.

It was discovered that whenever the SS survey begins, cities increase their level of activity, and cities are visibly cleaner during the months the survey is conducted. As a result, in SS 2023, the evaluation will be conducted in four phases rather than three in previous editions, and citizen validation and field assessment of processing facilities will be included in phase 3 in addition to phase 2.

On October 1, 2021, the Prime Minister launched the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0, with the goal of creating garbage-free cities. The theme of SS 2023, 'Waste to Wealth,' is consistent with SBMU 2.0's commitment to promoting circularity in waste management, which is one of the Mission's key objectives.

Additional weightage has been assigned in SS 2023 to waste source segregation, city waste processing capacity enhancement to match waste generation and waste reduction to dumpsites. Indicators with increased weightage have been introduced to emphasize the need for a phased plastic reduction, plastic waste processing, waste to wonder parks, and zero waste events.

MoHUA launched Swachh Survekshan in 2016 as a competitive framework to encourage cities to improve urban sanitation while encouraging large-scale citizen participation. Swachh Survekshan has been an enabler of Mission acceleration in cities for many years. It has resulted in healthy competition among cities to improve their performance on sanitation parameters, thereby improving the delivery of sanitation services to citizens.

The journey began in 2016 with only 73 cities with a million or more residents and has since expanded to 434 cities in 2017, 4,203 cities in 2018, 4,237 cities in 2019, 4,242 cities in SS 2020, 4,320 cities in SS 2021, and 4,355 cities in SS 2022, including 62 Cantonment Boards. SBMU 2.0 reiterates its commitment to moving towards a circular economy in waste management through the launch of SS 2023 with the theme of 'Waste to Wealth,' while tapping the vast scope of recovering value from waste.