MCD jumps 59 places to 31st spot in Swachh Survekshan 2024-25

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has significantly improved its national cleanliness ranking, moving up 59 positions to secure the 31st spot in the ‘Medium Cities’ category in the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2024–25.

The rankings, announced on Thursday by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, are based on the ninth edition of the Swachh Survekshan — the world’s largest urban sanitation survey — conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban.

In the previous edition, the MCD had been ranked 90th. The sharp improvement comes in a year that saw a record participation of 4,589 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), up by 73 from when the survey began in 2016.

This year, cities were categorised for the first time into five groups based on population: Very Small Cities (under 20,000), Small Cities (20,000–50,000), Medium Cities (50,000–3 lakh), Big Cities (3–10 lakh), and Million-Plus Cities (above 10 lakh).

With the theme “Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse,” the 2024–25 edition focused on promoting circularity in waste management and sustainable sanitation practices.

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Among the country’s top performers in the ‘Million-Plus Cities’ category were Indore, Surat, Navi Mumbai and Vijayawada — all of which topped the ‘Super Swachh League’.

The survey evaluated progress under Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban 2.0, with rankings based on solid waste management, citizen feedback, and urban sanitation capacity. According to officials, around 14 crore citizens took part in the assessment through in-person surveys, the Swachhata App, MyGov platform, and social media campaigns across more than 4,500 cities.

(With inputs from PTI)