aRTICLE | Taking JJM To Community
JJM gives power to the people Water is the foremost among necessities of life and drinking water supply is a basic and critical service delivery. Growing population and expanding economic activities in India have increased the demand for water. Jal Jeevan Mission was launched in 2019 to fill all the gaps in previous attempts made by the government to ensure access to potable quality water Pooja Upadhyay| Trainee Reporter
illions of people in India have been using unreliable water supplies of poor quality, which are costly and are distant from their home. Lack of access to water has numerous socio economic implications. Indian cities in the last decade have witnessed sharp transformation in terms of population growth and infrastructural development. Rural areas on the other hand remained unexposed to necessary development like infrastructure for water supply. The unplanned and uneven development in the sector of
28 February 2022 | www.urbanupdate.in
water has led to unequal distribution of water in cities and villages of the nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Jal Jeevan Mission to enable all households in India to have functional household tap connection (FHTC) by 2024. The mission simultaneously focuses on introducing innovative technologies for the purpose and turning the water infrastructure into a public utility service. Innovations like insulation jacket have been introduced in the pipes in villages of Ladakh to address the challenge of freezing water. The mission launched an online dashboard that displays real time progress made by the mission to maintain a transparent system with the beneficiaries of the mission. In a first of its kind initiative, India had launched a dedicated toll-free helpline number for rural water supply in 2015. The aim was to receive and address citizens’ concerns in a time-bound manner. This initiative has been included in the JJM.
JJM solving the water woes
Jal Jeevan Samvad from November 2020 stated that the 5T (transparency, teamwork, technology, and time leads to transformation) mantra learnt from Odisha is being used by the JJM as a guiding framework for sectoral transformation of water governance in India. Learning from the experiences of previous initiatives, this particular mission has been designed to be different in terms of its focus on the involvement of people in its implementation. The first community-owned water supply scheme was started in May, 2013 at Dhobi tola in Mohammadpur in Bihar. Lesson of community involvement and instilling a sense of ownership in people was learnt from successful implementation of such initiatives. The mission involves engaging local community in the process of establishing tap water connection in form of labour and/or monetary contributions. Thousands of people had returned from cities to their villages during lockdowns imposed in 2020. Jal Jeevan Mission, under the Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Yojana employed skilled
