Jal Jeevan Mission

Background and evolution

The mission's design drew on earlier state successes, such as Gujarat's community-managed water programmes through WASMO, and on global evidence that piped water at home produces much larger health gains than shared sources. It was also part of a wider push for 'saturation' of basic services, alongside housing, electricity, cooking gas and toilets.

Access to drinking water in rural India historically meant a hand pump, a well or a public standpost, often some distance from home. Women and girls spent hours fetching water, and the water was frequently contaminated by bacteria, arsenic, fluoride or salinity. Earlier programmes, such as the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme and the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, measured progress by "habitations covered" rather than households served, so a village might be counted as covered even when many families still walked long distances.

JJM changed the unit of measurement from the habitation to the household tap. It also emphasised community ownership, requiring each village to form a Pani Samiti or village water and sanitation committee that plans, operates and maintains its scheme and collects user contributions. This page examines JJM as an infrastructure and service-delivery programme, looking at what tap coverage figures mean and the gap between a connection and reliable, safe supply, rather than water conservation, which is covered on the Jal Shakti Abhiyan page.