Focus: GS-II Social Justice
Why in news?
- The toolkit for Swachh Survekshan 2021, the sixth edition of the Annual Cleanliness Survey of Urban India conducted by (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs) MoHUA was launched.
- A new category of awards titled ‘Prerak Dauur Samman’ as part of Swachh Survekshan 2021 was also announced.
Swachh Survekshan 2021
- Every year, the Swachh Survekshan is redesigned innovatively, to ensure that the process becomes more robust, with focus on sustaining the behaviour change.
- Swachh Survekshan 2021 indicators focus on parameters pertaining to wastewater treatment and reuse along with faecal sludge.
- Swachh Survekhan has become a tool for citizen engagement in the spirit of a true ‘Jan Andolan’.
- Ministry has also introduced Swachh Survekshan League in 2019, a quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns to be done in three quarters and 25% weightage integrated into the final Swachh Survekshan results.
- The integrated Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)- Urban Management Information System (MIS) was also launched that will help in bringing various digital initiatives under a single platform. For states and cities, this portal will provide a unified and hassle-free experience for the creation of both Swachhta and Digital India.
Prerak Dauur Samman
Prerak Dauur Samman award has a total of five additional sub- categories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring) – with top three cities being recognized in each. In a departure from the present criteria of evaluating cities on ‘population category’, this new category will categorize cities on the basis of six select indicator wise performance criteria which are as follows:
- Segregation of waste into Wet, Dry and Hazard categories
- Processing capacity against wet waste generated
- Processing and recycling of wet and dry waste
- Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste processing
- Percentage of waste going to landfills
- Sanitation status of cities
Success of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U)
- SBM-U was launched with a twin objective of making urban India Open defecation Free along with 100% scientific solid waste management.
- Almost all urban India is now Open-Defecation-Free (ODF).
- Scientific processing of solid waste, which stood at less than 20% at the start of the Mission in 2014, has more than tripled and now stands at 65%.
