Context:

India has achieved a historic milestone under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), with more than 81% of rural households now having access to safe tap water. As of October 2025, over 15.72 crore rural homes are receiving clean drinking water directly through household taps — a remarkable leap from just 3.23 crore households in 2019. This transformation marks one of the fastest expansions of basic infrastructure in independent India and a crucial step toward universal water security.

About Jal Jeevan Mission:

• • Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission envisions “Har Ghar Jal” — providing a functional household tap connection (FHTC) to every rural household. When the Mission began, only 16.71% of rural households had tap water. Today, this number has crossed 81%, reflecting 12.48 crore new connections in just six years.
  • The Mission operates under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, with a total central outlay of ₹2.08 lakh crore, largely utilised to build rural water infrastructure. But JJM is not just about pipes and taps — it represents a larger vision of women’s empowerment, health improvement, and community participation in water management.

Why the Mission Matters:

• • For decades, rural women and girls bore the burden of fetching water from distant sources. JJM directly addresses this gendered labour, saving nearly 5.5 crore hours every day, as estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) — three-fourths of this time being women’s. The Mission also improves health outcomes by ensuring access to clean water and reducing the spread of waterborne diseases. WHO estimates that universal coverage of safe drinking water in India could prevent 4 lakh diarrhoeal deaths and avert 14 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) annually.

India’s Water Challenge:

• • India sustains 18% of the world’s population but has access to only 4% of global freshwater resources. The per capita availability of water has dropped by over 70% since 1951, creating a widening demand–supply gap. Nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, according to NITI Aayog.
  • The problem is aggravated by groundwater depletion, urban pollution, and wastewater mismanagement. By 2030, cities like Delhi and Chennai are expected to run critically short of groundwater. In March 2024, India’s reservoirs recorded storage levels at just 40%, the lowest in five years — underscoring the urgency for sustainable water management.

Wastewater and Pollution: A Hidden Crisis:

India generates over 72,000 million litres per day (MLD) of wastewater, but only 28% is treated before being released into rivers or soil. This untreated discharge — from industries, cities, and farms — contaminates almost 70% of surface water sources.

• • Industrial Effluents: Around 3,500 industries pollute major river basins such as the Ganga.
  • Agricultural Runoff: Excess fertilisers and pesticides cause eutrophication, choking lakes and depleting fish populations.
  • Urban Sewage: The Yamuna receives over 640 MLD of untreated wastewater every day.

The Role of Wastewater Treatment:

Recycling and reusing treated wastewater is one of the most underused solutions in India’s water crisis. According to NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (CWMI), India can potentially treat and reuse up to 80% of wastewater.

Proper treatment offers multiple benefits:

• • Augments Water Supply by reusing treated water in irrigation and industry.
  • Prevents Pollution by stopping toxic discharge into rivers and aquifers.
  • Supports Groundwater Recharge — as demonstrated in Kolar, Karnataka, where treated wastewater rejuvenated dried wells.
  • Enables Resource Recovery — modern plants can extract nutrients for fertiliser and generate biogas for energy.

Government Policies and Initiatives:

1.       Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 – established the Central and State Pollution Control Boards.

2.      National Water Policy (2012) – promoted water reuse and conservation.

3.      Flagship Missions – initiatives like Namami Gange, AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0, and Smart Cities Mission have improved sewage management and urban water quality.

4.     Draft Wastewater Reuse Rules, 2024 – propose that bulk users must reuse 50% of wastewater by 2031.

5.     Housing Mandate (2027–28) – requires large housing societies to reuse 20% wastewater.

• • States/UTs with 100% Coverage: Goa, Telangana, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, and both Daman & Diu and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Quality Assurance and Community Monitoring: Water quality assurance is central to JJM’s success. In 2025–26, 2,843 laboratories across India tested 38.78 lakh water samples. Simultaneously, 24.8 lakh rural women were trained to test water quality using Field Testing Kits (FTKs) in more than 5 lakh villages.

Digital Governance: JJM has moved beyond brick-and-mortar expansion towards digital water governance.

·         The Rural Piped Water Supply Schemes (RPWSS) module will serve as a Digital Registry for all water projects, assigning each a unique RPWSS ID for real-time tracking and monitoring.

·         Integrated with GIS mapping and the PM Gati Shakti platform, it enables predictive analytics for efficient maintenance.

·         West Bengal’s “Jal Mitra” App has already shown the potential of digital systems, tracking over 13 crore activities, monitoring tap connections, and empowering communities through transparent reporting.

Women at the Core of the Mission: The Jal Jeevan Mission is as much about gender justice as it is about water. By ensuring water at home, it has freed over 9 crore women from daily water-fetching drudgery (SBI Research). The saved time has translated into higher female participation in agriculture and allied activities, improving household incomes and rural productivity.

·        In villages like Mhapan (Maharashtra), women’s self-help groups manage local water supply systems — from billing to maintenance — making the schemes self-sustaining. The group even generated a surplus income of ₹1.7 lakh, proving that women-led water governance works.

Sustainability and Climate Resilience: The Mission promotes source sustainability through greywater management, rainwater harvesting, and groundwater recharge. In Wokha, Nagaland, communities restored degraded slopes and built percolation tanks to replenish aquifers. In Bothara, Rajasthan, check dams raised the local water table by 70 feet, securing year-round supply and reducing over-extraction.

Employment and Economic Impact: According to an IIM Bangalore–ILO study, JJM has the potential to create 3 crore person-years of employment, supporting both skilled and unskilled workers. Women’s participation is a highlight — nearly 25 lakh women have been trained to use water testing kits and engage in water governance.

·        Economically, WHO projects that access to safe drinking water could save ₹8.2 lakh crore in health costs over time — a direct reflection of the link between water, health, and productivity.

Challenges Ahead:

• • Uneven Progress: Some states lag behind in coverage and quality monitoring.
  • Infrastructure Deficit: Around half of India’s households still lack sewerage systems, making wastewater collection difficult.
  • Operational Gaps: Only 36% of treatment plants are fully functional.
  • Behavioural Barriers: Farmers remain hesitant to reuse treated wastewater.
  • Climate Variability: Erratic rainfall patterns threaten source sustainability.

Conclusion:

The Jal Jeevan Mission stands out as a landmark in India’s development journey, combining infrastructure, social empowerment, and environmental sustainability. By extending tap water to more than 15.7 crore rural households, it has transformed lives and livelihoods across the country. Yet, the next phase will test India’s ability to sustain this progress, ensuring quality, equity, and long-term water security amid growing scarcity. With digital tools, community leadership, and policy coherence, JJM is not just providing water, it is shaping the foundation of resilient and inclusive rural development in India.