President of India Droupadi Murmu will confer the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26 at a ceremony scheduled for November 11, 2026, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The event will be attended by Union Minister Manohar Lal (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Power) and Minister of State Tokhan Sahu (MoHUA). This marks the 10th edition of the cleanliness assessment under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, themed 'Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel- Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath'.
The assessment covered 4,751 urban local bodies across India, a significant expansion from the 73 ULBs covered in the first edition in 2016. Cities were evaluated across 43 indicators spanning 10 key assessment areas: Segregation, Collection & Transportation of Waste; Solid Waste Management; Visible Cleanliness; Access to Sanitation; Mechanisation of Desludging Services; Ecosystem Strengthening & Institutional Parameters; Used Water Management; Advocacy for Swachhata; Overall Welfare of Sanitation Workers; and Citizen Feedback & Grievance Redressal.
The evaluation process involved more than 3,000 trained assessors who conducted extensive on-ground assessments supported by real-time GPS-enabled monitoring. The entire assessment process was fully digital, transparent, and subject to rigorous quality checks at every stage from evidence submission to verification.
A key feature of SS 2025-26 was the 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' initiative, launched on September 27, 2025, by Union Minister Manohar Lal as the first-ever urban waste management mentorship and peer-learning program. The initiative involved 70 mentor cities providing guidance to 191 mentee cities across 33 States/UTs, with a Memorandum of Understanding signed between all participating cities at the launch event.
Mentee cities showed remarkable improvement across key parameters between Swachh Survekshan 2024 and 2025-26. Visible cleanliness improved from 48% to 70%, door-to-door collection increased from 52% to 74%, source segregation rose from 16% to 30%, access to sanitation improved from 11% to 38%, used water management increased from 32% to 53%, and advocacy for Swachhata improved from 48% to 66%. These improvements reflect strengthened sanitation systems and enhanced service delivery outcomes achieved through dedicated mentorship from high-performing cities.
The awards ceremony will honor India's cleanest cities alongside top performers from the Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative, celebrating collective achievements in urban cleanliness over the past decade and reinforcing commitment to sustaining on-ground sanitation improvements.