The stage is all set for the 8th edition of world’s largest urban swachhata survey, Swachh Survekshan 2023 – Mera Shehar, Meri Pehchan. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the Field Assessment for Swachh Survekshan (SS) 2023. Under SS 2023, around 3,000 assessors will take the field for assessment from 1 July, 2023. The assessors will study performances of 4500+ cities across 46 indicators and it is expected to be completed within a month. Rolled out on 24 May, 2022, Swachh Survekshan 2023 champions Waste to Wealth and is curated towards processing and scientific management of waste.

Originally designed as a competitive monitoring tool, Swachh Survekshan was introduced under the aegis of MoHUA in 2016, with an objective to sanitation, helping cities to achieve the goal of sustainable sanitation and waste management in a fast-track competitive manner. Swachh Survekshan has enthused cities with a healthy spirit of competitiveness to improve urban sanitation and ensure best service delivery to their citizens. It is expected to engage with a whopping 10 Cr citizens during this year’s assessment making it indisputably the world’s largest annual urban cleanliness survey. Conducted over four quarters, the first three quarters of assessment have already been completed successfully.

A new third quarter for Swachh Survekshan 2023 was introduced this year and the States/ cities geared up for the survey enhancing their activities and level of preparedness. Avoiding the acute heat wave conditions across the nation in the last two months, the fourth quarter is now being launched from 1 July, 2023.  

Launching the fourth and final quarter of assessment of Swachh Survekshan 2023 which is also the most rigorous as well as awaited, Secretary, MoHUA, Mr. Manoj Joshi said in a virtual event, “Last 7 years of Swachh Survekshan has been the highlight of Swachh Bharat Mission and we have to continue that this year as well. We continue to make efforts to make it easier and useful for smaller and medium size cities so that Swachh Survekshan continues to be a management tool for improvement in sanitation. Emphasizing on transformation of manhole to machine hole, Secretary, MoHUA highlighted the importance of SafaiMitra Suraksha. Speaking on waste processing, he focused on the need to segregate at source. He added that he was optimistic that Survekshan would keep motivating cities to become better in sanitation.

Swachh Survekshan 2023 indicators focus on parameters pertaining to segregated door-to-door waste collection, zero waste events, Divyang-friendly toilets, improved plastic waste management and cleaning backlanes, wherein the marks have been increased this year. Laying emphasis on transforming ‘manholes’ to ‘machine holes’, priority has been given to Safaimitra Suraksha. 2x marks have been increased under this component. The new indicator of Waste to Wonder Parks has been introduced with 2% weightage. Swachh TULIP, primarily for more than 1 lakh population cities enters SS 2023 as a new indicator. Besides this, Red Spots (spitting in commercial/ residential area) has also been added as a new indicator under cleaning of public areas. Special emphasis is being laid on Promotion of RRR – Functionality of RRR Centres. 40% weightage has been indicated for detailed technical assessment of all waste treatment facilities in cities this year.

Swachh Survekshan 2023 was rolled out on 24 May, 2022, with telephonic feedback from citizens on various parameters of city cleanliness. 8 years have reflected that the citizens’ perception and engagement is strong vis-à-vis clean neighbourhoods, clean drains, clean market areas, etc. To bring in efficiency and transparency in sanitation survey, citizens’ feedback is collected via various channels - Vote For My City App, Vote For My City Portal, MyGov App, Swachhata App and QR Codes. Scan this QR Code to give your feedback! Citizens can start giving their feedback from 1 July, 2023. Over the years, the citizens’ feedback has been collected seamlessly with the cooperation of State govts, city administration and most importantly the enthusiasm of the public to participate in this survey.  

Focusing on Quality Assurance and for ensuring feedback and grievances are embedded in the Swachh Survekshan process, the assessment agency lays down certain mandates. On-field assessment teams are trained on process and tools before starting the survey, two levels of quality checks are conducted for evidences and surprise field visits are done by the core team to vet protocols. MoHUA has taken qualitative measures to ensure seamless functioning of the survey. A national team has been specifically designated as single point of contact for States/cities for matters pertaining to toolkit and anything regarding assessments etc. Ministry will also be sending a core team to various cities for overseeing assessment process.

Swachh Survekshan has opened avenues of change and transformation of urban landscape. It has now turned into a motivational tool and is identified as a matter of pride for States/cities. With an aim to build Garbage Free Cities, it is time to catalyse change.

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RJ