Jal Jeevan Mission
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is a centrally sponsored scheme of the Government of India, launched on 15 August 2019, aimed at providing functional household tap connections (FHTC) with 55 litres of safe and adequate drinking water per person per day to every rural household on a sustainable and long-term basis.[1] The initiative seeks to develop in-village piped water supply infrastructure, augment water sources, and promote community-led management for maintenance, prioritizing water-stressed and contaminated areas.[1] By February 2025, JJM had achieved tap connections in 15.44 crore rural households, representing 79.74% coverage, a significant increase from 3.23 crore (17%) at launch in 2019, with full saturation in 11 states and union territories including Goa and Haryana.[2] It has also extended connections to over 9.3 lakh schools and 9.7 lakh anganwadi centres, alongside widespread water quality testing involving millions of samples.[2] These advancements have been credited with reducing time burdens on women and girls for water collection, enabling greater focus on education and productivity.[3] Despite progress, JJM faces implementation challenges, including allegations of corruption and irregularities prompting central directives for states to report graft cases against officials and contractors, as well as funding shortfalls where only partial allocations have been released against the total outlay.[4] Criticisms highlight discrepancies between reported connections and actual functionality, with national surveys indicating only 39% of rural households using tap water as their primary source due to irregular supply, leaks, and low pressure, exacerbated by reliance on outdated census data and weak local governance capacity.[5] Sustainability concerns persist in geo-genic contamination-prone regions, underscoring the need for robust operation and maintenance mechanisms beyond initial infrastructure rollout.[6]