• Recently, the Swachh survekshan 2020 report was released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

What is Swachh Survekshan?

• It was launched by the Prime Minister in 2016.
• It is meant to monitor the performance of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which was launched on October 2, 2014.
• Swachh Survekshan is a ranking exercise taken up by the Government of India to assess rural and urban areas for their levels of cleanliness and active implementation of Swachhata mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner.
• It is also aimed at inculcating a spirit of healthy competition among cities towards becoming India’s cleanest cities.

Who conducts the survey?

• The Ministry of Urban Development takes up the Swachh Survekshan in urban areas and the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in rural areas.
• The Quality Council of India (QCI) is in charge of evaluating the performance of the participating cities. 

Key highlights of the report

• • Swachh Survekshan 2020 is the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness urban survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
  • Swach survekshan 2020 covered 4,242 cities, 62 cantonment boards and 92 Ganga towns and saw an unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens.   
  • This year the Ministry has released rankings based on the categorisation of cities on population, instead of releasing overall rankings.
• Indore was ranked the cleanest city in the overall category this year followed by Surat and Navi Mumbai.

Reference:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOw8W3DJ2g&list=PLcDghvQhYD9IOCPeVG4pQvLDCuTCit_D8
2. https://vikaspedia.in/health/sanitation-and-hygiene/swachh-survekshan