Swachh Survekshan, the world’s largest sanitation survey is conducted in different cities and towns across India.The survey was launched in the beginning as a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan to make India defecation free by October 2, 2019. It is conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA) under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) with the Quality Council of India (QCI).
The survey was undertaken with the objective to encourage citizen participation, creating awareness among the society and ensuring sustainability of initiatives taken to make cities and towns garbage and defecation free.
In 2021, Swachh Survekshan transformed from a monitoring tool to Implementation accelerator with a total 6000 marks divided among three categories- Citizens Voice, Service Level Progress and Certification.
The cities were surveyed under two Population categories- under 1 lakh and above 1 lakh. Each population category was further divided into 5 zones for zonal ranking.
In order to push the competition further, a new category of awards titled ‘Prerak Dauur Samman’ were announced for SS-2021. The awards were divided into five subcategories namely Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze) and Aarohi (Aspiring).
President Ram Nath Kovind presented the awards this year in presence of Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and others at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan.Indore won the first award for the fifth time and also got 5 star city certification.It also secured the first rank in the Safai Mitra Safety Challenge. Chhattisgarh has been ranked as the country’s cleanest state whereas Varanasi was adjudged as the cleanest ‘Ganga town’.
In Swachh Survekshan 2020, Jammu had secured 224th rank across the country but in SS 2021, the city made a big leap by jumping 55 spots to secure 169th spot out of 372 in the overall ranking.This year, Jammu has surpassed its best ranking till date i.e., 212th rank in 2018 Swachhta tally.
Srinagar on the other hand slipped 6 places and secured 42nd spot in cities with population above 10 lakh. Last year, Srinagar had done a commendable job of jumping from 357th to 36th position.
The overall improvement in the Swachhta rankings show that Jammu Municipal Corporation with the dedicated support of sanitation staff succeeded in making the city clean by improving door to door waste collection, avoiding poly bags and single-use plastics etc.
The concerned authorities can further improve the Swachh Survekshan rankings by involving people in digitally voicing their opinions as citizen engagement forms a major chunk of the total scoresheet. Citizens can be engaged through face-to-face interactions, voting on MyGov website, reaching out on 1969 Swachhata Helpline, Swachhata portal and App etc.
The results have been encouraging for Jammu city in Swachh Survekshan 2021 rankings hence boosting the morale of ground staff as well citizens to contribute further in making another big leap next time.