Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative

About Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative:

• It aims to institutionalise structured mentorship, peer learning, and collaborative action between mentor cities and mentee cities from within the same State.
• It is implemented under the Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U).
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
• Objectives
  • The objective is to support comparitively low performing cities in improving their swachhata 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 swachhata
• Key features
  • Under this, each mentor city and mentee city pair will jointly develop an Action Plan.
  • Eight thematic Focus Areas:
    • Visible cleanliness; waste segregation and transportation; scientific processing of waste; access to sanitation; used water management; mechanised desludging and worker welfare; Swachhata advocacy and citizen engagement; and citizen feedback and grievance redressal.
  • Funding: Both mentor and mentee cities may utilize the Capacity Building (CB) Funds allocated to each State/UT as part of SBM-U 2.0. State/UT Governments are encouraged to top up this fund, if required.

Recent Participation

• Under this initiative, 70 mentor cities have been paired with 191 mentee cities to facilitate knowledge-sharing and improve sanitation outcomes. 
• Recognition in Swachh Survekshan 2025–26: The top three city pairs were Ahmedabad-Sanand, Indore-Depalpur and Tirupati-Kuppam.