In September 2025, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), rolled out ‘Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ)’ initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) during a special event held at Sonipat, Haryana.
- The newly launched initiative marks one of the largest time-bound and structured mentorship frameworks in the urban waste management sector.
Key Dignitaries: Nayab Singh Saini, Chief Minister (CM) of Haryana, Union Minister of State (MoS) Tokhan Sahu, MoHUA, Urban Development (UD) ministers from various States, Mayors, Commissioners, and S. Katikithala, Secretary of MoHUA, were also present at the event.
Exam Hints:
- What? Rolling out of Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) initiative
- Rolled out by: Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, MoHUA
- Where? Sonipat, Haryana
- Implemented under: SBM-U
- Purpose: To provide mentorship for urban waste management
- Total Cities covered: 72 (mentor cities) and 200 (mentee cities)
- Selection based on: latest Swachh Survekshan (SS) rankings
- Total MoUs Signed: Nearly 300
About Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ):
Objective: To foster knowledge and experience sharing, peer learning and leveraging best practices in sanitation and waste management across urban areas of the country.
Coverage: SSJ, a structured mentorship and collaborative action programme involves 72 mentor cities and around 200 mentee cities.
Priority Areas: The SSJ initiative has identified 8 key priority areas such as: visible cleanliness, waste segregation and transport, scientific processing of waste, access to sanitation, used water management, citizen advocacy, mechanized desludging and grievance redressal.
Mentor-Mentee Cities: As per MoHUA, top-performing cities have been selected as mentor cities based on their latest performance in the Swachh Survekshan (SS) rankings and paired them with low-performing mentee cities.
Selection Process: Cities that ranked 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in 2022, 2023, and 2024 editions of SS were included as top performers across 5 population categories were inducted in the Super Swachh League (SSL)which was introduced in 2024-25 SS.
- The MoHUA mentioned that mentor cities are the top-performing cities that are part of the SSL; the top 3 cities ranked across population categories in SS 2024 rankings; and promising clean cities that emerged across States/ Union Territories (UTs) as part of SS 2024 rankings.
- While, Mentee cities were selected from the lowest ranks in their respective states’ latest SS rankings, considering their geographical proximity to their paired mentor cities.
Guidelines for SSJ: In August 2025, MoHUA released the guidelines for SSJ initiative, officially pairing mentor and mentee cities.
Nodal Agency: MoHUA will facilitate strategic guidance and policy-level support to ensure implementation of SSJ across Indian States.
- Further, SSJ is being supported under the capacity building initiative of SBM-U.
Signing of MoUs: During the event, nearly 300 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed simultaneously nationwide in the presence of all participating cities. This officially marked the commencement of a 100-day pilot phase.
- Under a 100-day pilot phase, each pair will jointly develop action plans with specific milestones, focusing on experience sharing and knowledge transfer.
- The effectiveness of the programme will be monitored and evaluated during SS 2026 rankings.
Current Status: As of September 2025, 21 states and 57 mentor cities have joined to guide to a total of 163 mentee cities.
- Pairings of some of the states are Andhra Pradesh (AP): Vijayawada (mentor) and Chintalapudi, Akiveedu and Narasapur (mentee cities);
- Gujarat: Ahmedabad (mentor) and Sanand and Wankaner (mentee cities);
- Odisha: Bhubaneswar (mentor) and Kendrapara and Debagarh (mentee cities);
- Chandigarh (mentor) and Panchkula (mentee).
About Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA):
Union Minister- Manohar Lal Khattar (Constituency- Karnal, Haryana)
Minister of State (MoS)- Tokhan Sahu (Constituency- Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh)
