Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)

Why in news?

India has achieved a major milestone under the Jal Jeevan Mission (Har Ghar Jal), with over 81 % of rural households having access to clean tap water, marking a significant step towards universal water security in rural India.

What is jal jeevan mission?

• Aim - To provide Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) to provide 55 lpcd (litre per capita per day) drinking water to all rural households in the country by 2024.
  • 75% of the target achieved over 5 years, so extended till 2028.
• Launched in – August 2019.
• Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• Funding – Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• Objective –
  • Ensure universal FHTC in rural India, prioritizing water-scarce and vulnerable areas.
  • Emphasizes institutional access, regular monitoring, and community ownership through voluntary contributions.
  • Sustainability is supported via infrastructure, source protection, and O&M funding.
  • Capacity building and awareness campaigns foster long-term engagement and safe water practices.

What are the key components of JJM?

• In-Village Piped Water Supply Infrastructure – Development of piped water systems within villages to ensure tap water connections to every rural household.
• Sustainable Drinking Water Sources – Development of reliable drinking water sources and/ or augmentation of existing sources to provide long-term sustainability to water supply system.
• Bulk Water Transfer & Distribution – Establishment of bulk water transfer systems, treatment plants, and distribution networks.
• Technological Interventions for Water Quality – Implementation of technologies to remove contaminants where water quality is an issue.
• Retrofitting of Existing Schemes – Upgrading completed and ongoing schemes to provide FHTCs at a minimum service level of 55 lpcd.
• Grey Water Management – Treatment and reuse of grey water to promote water conservation.
• Community Capacity Building – Support activities aimed at building the capacities of communities for sustainable water management.
• Contingency Funds – Provision of funds to address unforeseen challenges or issues arising from natural disasters or calamities.

What are the progress under the Jal Jeevan Mission?

• Ensuring safety – The JJM continues to make steady progress towards ensuring safe and adequate drinking water for every rural household in India.

• States/UTs with 100% Coverage – 11 States & Union Territories - achieved full tap water connectivity for all rural households.
  • UTs – Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu.
  • States – Haryana, Telangana, Puducherry, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh.

• In 2019, when the Mission was launched, only 3.23 crore households (16.71 %) had access to tap water.
• Since then, 12.48 crore additional households have been connected, marking one of the fastest expansions of basic infrastructure in rural India.

What are the digital innovations that help in transforming rural water supply?

• RPWSS module – It is a digital registry for rural water projects, aims to enhance transparency, accountability, and efficiency in the management of rural water infrastructure.
• The module assigns a unique ID to every rural piped water supply scheme to improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency.
• Integrated with GIS mapping & PM Gati Shakti – Offers real-time dashboards, predictive analytics, and tools for efficient operation and maintenance.
• JJM Dashboard – Provides real-time tracking of mission progress across states, districts, and villages and promotes transparency, accountability, healthy competition among regions to achieve universal tap water coverage.
• Digital training platforms – JJM Digital Academy uses technology to train professionals and community members on sustainable water management, operations, and maintenance.

What are the impacts of JJM?

• Reduce burden for women – WHO estimates that by providing tap connection to every rural household will save over 5.5 crore hours daily, primarily for women.
• Health & economic benefit – Ensuring universal access to safely managed drinking water across all Indian households could:
  • Prevent nearly 4 lakh deaths from diarrheal diseases
  • Avert around 14 million DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years)
  • Save up to rupees 8.2 lakh crore in health-related costs.
• Empowering women – 8.3%-point drop in household fetching water from outside, resulting in 9 crore women no longer need to fetch water – led to 7.4%-point rise in women's participation in agriculture & allied activities (SBI research).
• Reduction in mortality rate – Safe water coverage could reduce mortality among children under 5 by nearly 30%, potentially saving more than 1,00,000 lives annually (Nobel laureate Prof. Michael Kremer’s research).
• Employment generation – JJM has potential to generate nearly 3 crore person-years of employment during its build-out, with nearly 25 lakh women being trained to use Field Testing Kits (IIM-Bangalore + ILO).

What are the successful initiatives driven by communities &  supported by technology?

• Digital Governance and Transparency – West Bengal 
  • Jal Mitra app – It is a Management Information System (MIS) aligned with the JJM.
  • Aims to ensure FHTCs to every rural household, while emphasizing sustained service delivery, community ownership, and participatory monitoring through digital innovation.
  • It tracked 13.70 crore community activities (April 2024–August 2025), facilitated functionality assessments for 80.39 lakh households across 22,111 villages.
• Converting Water Scarcity to Water Security – Rajasthan
  • The Bothara village has severe water scarcity and groundwater exploitation exceeding 103%.
  • The Water Security Plan prepared by the village’s Water Security Committee (WSC) adopted a ridge-to-valley approach.
  • Check dams and contour trenches were built, leading to a 70-foot rise in the water level of an open well within 10 days of the check dam’s completion.
  • Led to increase the village’s annual water storage capacity by 11.77%.

The success of the JJM lies not only in infrastructure creation but also in the spirit of “Jan Bhagidari se Peyjal Prabandhan”, community-led water governance combined with innovative use of technology.

What lies ahead?

• In just 6 years, JJM is turning the vision of Har Ghar Jal into reality through rapid expansion, digital innovation, and strong community involvement.
• With sustainability and equity at its core, the Mission stands as a model of good governance and people-led development, taking India closer to universal and reliable water security.

References

1. PIB | Jal Jeevan Mission
2. JJM | Jal Jeevan Mission