Swachhata Green Leaf Rating (SGLR)

What is the Swachhata Green Leaf Rating?

Swachhata Green Leaf Rating (SGLR) is a sanitation rating system for tourist accommodation, launched on 2 November 2023 by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism. Swachhata Green Leaf Rating grades a hotel, homestay, lodge, dharamshala or camp on how well it manages human waste, solid waste and greywater, and awards it 1, 3 or 5 green leaves.

The rating sits inside the sanitation architecture of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen). The mission's ODF Plus phase is about waste management rather than toilet construction, and tourist facilities in rural and hill areas are among the largest waste generators in their Gram Panchayats. SGLR applies that logic to the hospitality sector.

Key objectives

• Give tourists a visible, comparable signal of a facility's sanitation standards.
• Push hotels, homestays and camps towards safe faecal sludge management, source segregation of solid waste and proper greywater disposal.
• Reduce single-use plastic and untreated waste at tourist destinations.
• Connect the tourism sector to the ODF Plus goals of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).

Main features

• Assessment is on 200 marks: 80 for faecal sludge management, 80 for solid waste management and 40 for greywater management.
• A facility must obtain a minimum of 50% in each of the three heads; facilities below 100 marks overall do not qualify for certification.
• Ratings are awarded at three levels: 1 leaf, 3 leaves and 5 leaves.
• The process is self-assessment first, then physical verification by a sub-divisional committee, then rating by a district level committee.
• Rollout was piloted in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and then extended by states including Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Assam.

Who is eligible for the Swachhata Green Leaf Rating?

A facility can be rated if it is:

• A hotel or resort serving tourists, with or without a restaurant.
• A homestay registered with the state tourism department.
• A lodge, guest house or dharamshala providing paid or free tourist stay.
• A camp operating with portable toilets.

Who cannot apply:

• Individuals cannot apply. SGLR rates a hospitality facility, not a person. A tourist, a household or a worker cannot register for a personal benefit under it, and no money is paid to anyone under the scheme.
• A facility that cannot show basic sanitation arrangements is not eligible for a rating. It will simply fail the minimum score. Scoring below 50% in even one of the three heads, or below 100 marks overall, means no certificate.
• The rating is only available in states and districts that have rolled SGLR out and constituted the district and sub-divisional committees. Rollout has been staggered, so a facility in a district without a committee has no route to apply yet.

What documents are required for the Swachhata Green Leaf Rating?

How to apply for the Swachhata Green Leaf Rating

1. Check with your district administration or district Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) cell whether SGLR has been rolled out in your district and whether a state portal is in use. Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, run a dedicated SGLR registration site.
2. Register the facility with its name, category — hotel, resort, homestay, lodge, dharamshala or camp; location, number of rooms and contact details.
3. Complete the self-assessment form, scoring your facility against the three heads: faecal sludge management (80 marks), solid waste management (80 marks) and greywater management (40 marks).
4. Attach the supporting evidence; septic tank and desludging records, waste segregation and disposal records, greywater arrangements and photographs.
5. Submit the self-assessment to the local administration, which routes it to the Sub Divisional Magistrate.
6. Allow the Verification Sub-Committee to physically inspect the facility. The committee checks the claims made in the self-assessment and reports to the SDM.
7. The district level committee reviews the verified score and awards 1, 3 or 5 green leaves, or records that the facility did not qualify.
8. Display the certificate at the facility and re-apply after making improvements if you want a higher rating.

What is assessed under the three heads?

Faecal sludge management (80 marks) looks at whether toilets are connected to a compliant septic tank or sewer, whether the tank is desludged at a proper interval by an authorised operator, and where that sludge finally goes. An overflowing or unlined tank draining into open ground is the classic failure.

Solid waste management (80 marks) looks at segregation at source into wet and dry waste, on-site composting of kitchen and garden waste where possible, storage arrangements, handover to the local body or an authorised recycler, and the facility's substitution of single-use plastic: bottles, straws, small toiletry packs.

Greywater management (40 marks) looks at kitchen, bathroom and laundry wastewater: whether it goes to soak pits or a treatment arrangement rather than into a drain, road or stream, and whether any of it is reused for gardening.

Why the rating matters for a hospitality business

For a homestay or a small hotel, the direct commercial value of SGLR is signal. Tourists comparing two similar homestays in the same hill town have very little to go on regarding sanitation, and a 5 leaf certificate on the wall answers a question they would otherwise not ask.

For the destination, the value is cumulative. Tourist towns generate waste loads far above their resident population, and the Gram Panchayat or municipality carries the cost. Getting a large share of facilities segregating waste and managing greywater on their own premises is the only realistic way to keep a high-footfall destination clean.

Help and grievance redressal

• District SGLR committee, chaired at the district level under the District Collector, decides ratings and handles disputes over scores.
• Sub Divisional Magistrate convenes the Verification Sub-Committee that physically inspects facilities.
• District Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) cell handles technical questions on faecal sludge, greywater and solid waste standards.
• Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation publishes the rating booklet and technical notes at swachhbharatmission.ddws.gov.in.

For the wider mission this rating sits inside, see the guides to Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) and GOBARdhan on this site.