The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has introduced the Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) initiative, a mentorship program aiming to improve urban cleanliness standards. The program pairs 72 high-performing cities with around 200 lower-performing cities, based on their rankings in the Swachh Survekshan. The initiative, part of the Swachh Bharat Mission - Urban (SBM-U), was launched by Union Minister Manohar Lal. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between the mentor and mentee cities to formalize the collaboration.