Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM): Achievements, Intergenerational Benefits, Challenges and Way Forward

The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), launched in 2019, seeks to provide Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) with safe and adequate drinking water to all rural households.It has two components JJM Rural (55 liters of water per person per day) and JJM Urban (functional taps in all statutory towns).

• As of February 1, 2025, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has successfully provided tap water connections to 12.20 crore additional rural households, bringing the total coverage to over 15.44 crore households, which accounts for 79.74% of all rural households in India. Initially, only 3.23 crore (17%) rural households had tap water connections.
• 11 States/UTs, which include, Goa, A &N Islands, Dadra Nagar Haveli & Daman Diu, Haryana, Telangana, Puducherry, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh have provided tap water connection to all rural households (100%) in the respective State/UT.
• Till date 9,32,440 schools and 9,69,585 Anganwadi centres have tap water supply.

Intergenerational benefits

• Improved public health outcomes: Reduction in water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea and typhoid, lower child mortality and morbidity, and better long-term physical and cognitive development of children.
  • WHO also projects that ensuring safely managed drinking water for all households in India could prevent nearly 400,000 deaths from diarrheal diseases, saving approximately 14 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs).
  • Nobel laureate Prof. Michael Kremer’s research suggests that safe water coverage could reduce mortality among children under five by nearly 30%, potentially saving 136,000 lives annually.
• Enhanced nutritional security: Reduced disease burden improves nutrient absorption among children, helping break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.
• Gender equity and women’s empowerment: Decrease in time spent by women and girls on fetching water, leading to better school attendance for girls and higher female workforce participation.
  • Enabling women’s participation in decision-making; ensures gender responsive planning 
    • Example: Village Water and Sanitation Committee with 50% women
  • Addresses time poverty faced by women and helped them engage in income-generating activities. 
    • Example: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that achieving JJM’s goals will save over 5.5 crore hours daily, primarily for women, otherwise spent collecting water.
• Educational gains and human capital formation: Healthier children face fewer school absences, resulting in improved learning outcomes and long-term productivity.
• Economic and livelihood benefits: Lower household healthcare expenditure and improved labour productivity contribute to greater rural economic stability and reduced distress migration.
• Strengthening local institutions and governance: Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions and Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) promotes decentralised governance and long-term behavioural change.
• Environmental Consciousness:Jal Jeevan Mission implements source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through greywater management, encouraging community-led water resource management, fostering intergenerational water stewardship.

Challenges in Ensuring the Mission’s Success

• Source Sustainability & Groundwater Depletion:Providing tap connections without securing perennial water sources risks long-term failure. Over-extraction of groundwater, climate variability, and poor recharge threaten sustainability.
  • Outdated & ineffective legislations and policies e.g. Indian Easement Act allows uncontrolled withdrawal of groundwater for agriculture. 
  • Promotion of water-guzzling crops like rice and sugarcane. 
  • Overuse of water bodies and depletion of ground water table e.g. Arsenic pollution in Punjab and West Bengal
  • Lack of dependable drinking water sources: Water-stressed, drought-prone and desert regions face acute scarcity of sustainable surface and groundwater sources, affecting long-term viability of rural water supply schemes.
• Water Quality Monitoring: “Safely managed” water requires regular testing for contaminants (fluoride, arsenic, nitrates, pathogens). Many states lack adequate labs, real-time monitoring, and surveillance systems.
  • Presence of naturally occurring contaminants such as fluoride, arsenic, iron and salinity compromises water quality and necessitates costly treatment and monitoring mechanisms.
• Financial Constraints: 
  • Operation and maintenance (O&M) costs are high and often underestimated. Communities may struggle to fund repairs, replacements, and energy costs for water supply systems.
  • Rising cost of raw materials: Inflation-driven increases in prices of pipes, cement, steel and other inputs escalate project costs and strain allocated budgets.
• Delay in release of State share: Delayed or inadequate release of the matching State contribution in some States slows project execution and disrupts timely completion of water supply schemes.
• Institutional & Governance Gaps: Weak capacity of local bodies (Gram Panchayats) to manage, maintain, and collect tariffs.
• Delays in statutory and other clearances: Procedural delays in obtaining environmental, forest, and administrative clearances impede timely implementation of water infrastructure projects.
• Poor attention to Operations and Maintenance (O&M) of completed schemes.
• Infrastructure & Technical Issues: In hilly, tribal, or scattered habitations, engineering solutions are complex and costly.
  • Difficult terrain and scattered habitations: Uneven geographical conditions and dispersed rural settlements increase infrastructure costs and pose logistical challenges in ensuring universal tap water coverage.
  • Poor construction quality and non-standardized systems lead to frequent breakdowns.
• Data Transparency & Accountability: While JJM dashboard tracks FHTC coverage, real functionality, regularity, and quality of water supply are harder to monitor.
• Lack of technical capacity at the grassroots level: Lack of technical capacity with implementing agencies, Gram Panchayats and local communities to plan, manage, operate & maintain the water supply schemes

The Way Forward – Critical Enablers:

• Source Sustainability Plans: Integrate water budgeting, aquifer recharge, and watershed management at village level.
• Community Ownership: Strengthen Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) for O&M, tariff collection, and surveillance.
• Technology & Innovation: Promote IoT-based water quality testing, sensor-based supply monitoring, and energy-efficient pumps.
• Capacity Building: Train local technicians, PRI representatives, and operators for long-term management.

Conclusion

The Jal Jeevan Mission has the potential to be a landmark public health and development intervention with lifelong benefits for future generations. However, its success hinges on moving beyond physical infrastructure to sustainable water governance. The real achievement will be measured not by tap connections installed, but by reliable, safe, and inclusive water services delivered every day, for decades to come. Balancing speed with systemic resilience is the core challenge.