Swachh Survekshan Grameen launched to rank districts, states on basis of rural cleanliness

The government today launched its 'Swachh Survekshan Grameen' 2018, a survey of rural cleanliness programme, to rank all districts and states on the basis of qualitative and quantitative evaluation.

The ranking will be based on a comprehensive set of cleanliness parameters, survey of public places, citizens' perception of "swachhta" (cleanliness) and their recommendations for the improvement of the programme, and data from the 'Swachh Bharat Mission' in rural areas.

"The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) has commissioned the survey on rural cleanliness and this ranking will be based on district level surveys of public places like schools, anganwadis, haat-bazaars, panchayat and citizen's perception of 'Swachhta'. Top performing states and districts will be awarded on October 2, " MDWS secretary Parameshwaran Iyer told reporters.

According to the Swachh Survekshan Gramin plan, 6,800 villages in 680 districts across the country will be covered and 34,000 public places in these villages will be surveyed.

Around 54,000 citizens will be interviewed for their feedback on Swachh Bharat Mission related issues and they would be also asked to give feedback on sanitation related issues, the ministry said.

The ministry, which has engaged a private body for the survey, stated the ranking would be done using information on service-level progress obtained from the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) of the ministry, surveys of public places undertaken by the agency using standard observation parameters and citizens' feedback from villages and online through a mobile application developed for the purpose.