Swachh Survekshan 2025-26: Smaller Cities Lead the Change
Swachh Survekshan 2025–26 results reflect a strong upward momentum across urban India, with over 350 ULBs improving their position by more than 500 ranks
UdaipurTimes, Nov 12, 2026 - President of India Droupadi Murmu honoured India’s cleanest cities at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025–26 held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, convened by the Department of Urban Development (DoUD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Winners were felicitated in the presence of Manohar Lal, Union Minister for MoHUA & Power, and Tokhan Sahu, Minister of State for MoHUA.
This year 60 national awards were announced, under the following categories:
- Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ)
- Clean Cities of Super Swachh League
- Swachh Shehar (in five population categories)
- Swachh River Front Town
- Swachh Coastal Town
- Clean Himalayan City
- State First Swachh City
The Swachh Survekshan 2025–26 results reflect a strong upward momentum across urban India, with over 350 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) improving their position by more than 500 ranks. Smaller cities have emerged as key drivers of this transformation, as 1,700+ ULBs with populations below 50,000 population improved their rankings compared to 2024–25, demonstrating that sustained efforts and citizen participation are accelerating the Swachhata movement across towns of all sizes.
Showing excellence in collaborative efforts and peer-learning, Mentor City Ahmedabad and Mentee City Sanand, Mentor Indore and Mentee Depalpur and Mentor Tirupati and Mentee Kuppam, were declared the top-ranked jodis under Swachh Shehar Jodi award.
The intention of Jodi award is that the best performing cities should handhold cities with low scores to improve their performance.
Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai, Gujarat’s Surat and Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada emerged as top three Clean Cities of Super Swachh League. Marking the rise of a new generation of clean cities, GVMC Visakhapatnam, Jabalpur and Lucknow emerged as India’s top Swachh Shehar in the million plus population category.
Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26 expanded its coverage to include the hills and Himalayan cities as well as river front and coastal towns. Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Shopian in J&K have been declared as the top three Clean Himalayan Cities. The top three ranks for the Swachh River Front Town have been bestowed upon Rewa (Madhya Pradesh), Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) consecutively, while awards for Swachh Coastal Town went to Odisha’s Puri, Kerala’s Alappuzha and Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri.
To recognise and reward excellence across States and Union Territories, the State First Swachh City Award was conferred on 30 top-performing cities. Union Territories have been classified into two categories for awards:
(i) Up to five ULBs
(ii) More than five ULBs
As part of the 10th edition of Swachh Survekshan, ULBs were assessed across 43 indicators covering 10 critical domains, including Segregation, Collection & Transportation of Waste, Solid Waste Management, Visible Cleanliness, Access to Sanitation, Mechanisation of Desludging Services, Ecosystem Strengthening and Institutional Parameters, Used Water Management, Advocacy for Swachhata, Overall Welfare of Sanitation Workers, Citizen Feedback and Grievance Redressal.
