Indore, Bhopal and Visakhapatnam are India’s cleanest cities, according to the Union Ministry of Urban Development’s Swachh Survekshan Report. There is much to cheer about these top rankers — and many worries about the under-achievers. But the significance of this cleanliness ranking, released to mark two and a half years of the Swachh Bharat Mission, goes beyond the performance of individual cities. The participation of 434 cities in a survey which ranked them on the basis of cleanliness is heartening for a country that has long despaired over the filth in its urban centres. Only 76 cities had participated in a similar endeavour last year. There is much in the Swachh Survekshan Report that shows urban India’s keenness to spruce up — nearly 300 cities have provisions for door-to-door waste collection and 118 cities are open-defecation free.
These impressive factoids should not, however, blinker us to the Report’s omissions. Its ranking methodology does not incentivise sustainable waste disposal. The top
The Solid Waste Management Rules, framed last year, emphasise that 50 per cent of the biodegradable waste in Indian cities could be turned into compost at the local level, without burdening landfills and garbage treatment plants. The rules also reiterate a point stressed in much of the literature on solid waste management — 25 per cent to 35 per cent of India’s waste can be recycled. The Swachh Survekshan Report, in comparison, is a bit of a climbdown. It must correct the glitches in its next endeavour.
