President of India to Confer 10th Edition Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 Awards
PIB National (English) · Published 9 November 2026 · Last updated
The President will confer the 10th Swachh Survekshan 2025‑26 Awards, highlighting expanded urban cleanliness metrics and the mentorship‑driven Swachh Shehar Jodi programme.
Key points
- President Droupadi Murmu will present the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025‑26 on 11 Nov 2026 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
- The ceremony will be attended by Union Minister Manohar Lal, MoHUA, and MoS Tokhan Sahu, MoHUA.
- The 10th edition, themed ‘Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel‑ Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath’, honors India’s cleanest cities under the Swachh Bharat Mission‑Urban.
- Swachh Survekshan 2025‑26 evaluated 4,751 cities across 43 indicators in 10 key assessment areas, with >3,000 trained assessors using GPS‑enabled monitoring.
- New focus areas include citizen feedback, urban river fronts, coastlines, water bodies, open defecation prevention, tourist heritage cleanliness, and school behaviour change.
- The Swachh Shehar Jodi mentorship scheme, launched on 27 Sep 2025, pairs 70 mentor cities with 191 mentee cities across 33 States/UTs.
- Mentee cities improved visible cleanliness from 48 % (2024) to 70 % (2025‑26) and door‑to‑door collection from 52 % to 74 %.
- Other mentee gains: source segregation 16 %→30 %, access to sanitation 11 %→38 %, used‑water management 32 %→53 %, advocacy 48 %→66 %.
Background
- Swachh Survekshan began in 2016 with 73 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and has expanded to over 4,751 cities by 2025‑26.
- The assessment is the flagship cleanliness rating of Swachh Bharat Mission‑Urban (SBM‑U), a central government initiative launched in 2014.
- In 2024, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs introduced digital, GPS‑enabled assessments to enhance transparency.
- The Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative was announced by Union Minister Manohar Lal on 27 Sep 2025 as the first urban waste‑management mentorship programme.
- An MoU signed at the launch formalised mentor‑mentee relationships, aiming to accelerate waste‑management excellence across 33 States/UTs.
UPSC relevance, Prelims facts and Mains angle for this issue are in the full SWAदेSH note.
Original report: PIB National (English)