ACT, INNOVATE, REPLICATE

On 2nd October 2014 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBM) with the dream to make Bharat clean by 2019 the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. At the time of its initiation everyone except the mission architects had their tubular vision and thinking confined to the sanitation only. Initially it has lot of criticism from opponents citing it as photoshop or not worth to get so much push from the topmost leader of the country. Since his election Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been continuously pursuing the goals set for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and to keep constant track over implementation. Its importance and significance are clear from the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office is doing regular monitoring. Based on the progress and feedback, goals are reset to improve further. All stakeholders got involved with Sincere Efforts to keep their knowledge and awareness level at high. These efforts have brought Sanitation, Waste Management from neglected to the front seat. One simple evidence of the same has been No sin attached with sanitation publicly is No More a Matter of Shame. Rather, people feel pride talking about sanitation and point out to someone if littering. As a practitioner of Waste Management since 1994, I saw thousands of aggressive incidences on raising objection to littering or burning garbage in open. Earlier to SBM, discussions used to target towards municipal or government inefficiency.

This program started with Mission mode, has expanded its horizon to the micro level of waste management and as a result by each passing day new dimensions add to the Mission. The journey of SBM begun with aim to improve coverage and usage of Toilets both in public and private. Every year, SBM moves with a new thrust year. SBM, not just to Urban area. The largest global intervention on Sanitation and Waste Management has worked on all aspects like Knowledge, Attitude and Practise. Nowhere in the world, such organised and well monitored intervention has ever happened. SBM is under implementation for over 11 years now with a dynamic approach with major emphasis on citizen feedback. Mission aims have given it as the highest place and kept it as a major criterion to assess success of implementation on ground.

While Swachh Bharat Mission has changed way of life, it has become ground to innovate on means to achieve cleanliness, stakeholder involvement, circular economy, better living conditions etc. Illustrious and innovative interventions like Annual Swacchata Sarvekshan (Sanitation Survey), ODF++, NAMASTE – National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem, Swacchata Mitra Suraksha Challenge (SMSC) are few amongst several initiatives, which have shown path to policy makers and practitioners at global level. Interestingly, all these innovative steps were in competitive mode for the cities to act.

After decade long innovative and successful interventions, focus has shifted to replicate the best practices adopted by various municipalities or cities. Over successive editions of Swachh Sarvekshan—the world’s largest urban sanitation and waste management survey—several cities have consistently shown exceptional performance, sustained high citizen engagement and positive feedback, and resilient governance processes, even in the face of leadership transitions and operational challenges. During the past, cities used to collaborate with Sister Cities found in industrialised or developed countries. Basis of setting up collaboration used to be either similar culture, birth, or funding support besides unwritten aims. Benefits of setting up sister cities remained limited to some delegation exchanges or funding to set up some facility. It did not work proactively and continuously for the betterment of cities.

In this direction, the latest innovative step “Swachh Shahar Jodi” (SSJ) is a mentorship initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban where high-performing cities (“mentor” cities) are paired with lower-performing cities (“mentee” cities) to share best practices in sanitation and waste management. To make programme more sensible, practical, and replicable; it has been envisaged to include two cities of same state with several shared challenges and culture. To scale the impact of the proven approaches adopted by India’s cleanest cities over the years, the Swachh Shahar Jodi now aims to institutionalise structured mentorship, peer learning, and collaborative action between mentor cities and mentee cities from within the same State. Launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in September 2025, the program aims to improve urban cleanliness through collaborative, 100-day action plans and peer learning, with the goal of uplifting mentee cities’ performance in the Swachh Sarvekshan rankings.

Objective of the scheme is to improve sanitation and waste management in urban areas by using the ability of successful cities to help struggling ones. The aim is to support comparatively low performing cities in improving their Swacchata performance by drawing on the experience of mentor cities to:

• Replicate tested best practices in sanitation and waste management
• Strengthen processes in mentee cities
• Support the waste processing set up to improve visible cleanliness
• Improve citizen engagement for responsible behaviour change for Swacchata

As a first step of implementation, top-ranked cities from the Swachh Sarvekshan rankings will be assigned to act as mentors to cities that have ranked lower. The program involves mentor and mentee cities signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to create and implement 100-day action plans focused on knowledge transfer and practical solutions.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Dr Vivek S Agrawal, The writer is specialist on Urban Health and Environment