In rural India, getting clean water used to mean long, exhausting walks for women.
Neerja, a 25-year-old woman, has lived her entire life in a village where water was always a struggle. Every day, she would walk for two hours, both morning and evening, to fetch water from an uphill stream. This routine took away not only her time but also opportunities. Neerja never attended school because there was no water supply in the village toilets, making education inaccessible to her.
Neerja’s name, meaning “born out of water” and another name for Goddess Laxmi, always felt ironic given her daily struggles with water. Now married with a two-year-old daughter, she dreams of a different life for her child—one where access to clean water isn’t a barrier to education and opportunity. For years, she watched her hopes trickle away with each exhausting trek for water, but that all began to change with the arrival of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in 2019.
- Author's Name Smriti Bhatnagar
- Posted On 01st Aug 2024 at 14:57 PM
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Launched to address this exact issue, JJM set out to bring piped water to every rural household in India by 2024. Today, thanks to this mission, tap water flows in Neerja’s village, and her life has transformed. No longer burdened by the exhausting task of fetching water, Neerja now has time to pursue her passion as an artisan in the local handicraft manufacturing centre. This change has opened doors she never thought possible, giving her a renewed sense of hope for the future.
Since 2019, the mission has brought tap water to 151 million households, transforming countless lives.
The 6 pillars of JJM’s success
JJM improves rural water security through six key steps:
- Ensuring all households have access to water
- Building strong infrastructure
- Promoting community involvement
- Monitoring to maintain water quality
- Strengthening local management through training
- Supporting states and local governments with a decentralised approach, backed by the central government
However, getting water to homes is just the start. Keeping these systems running smoothly is vital. This is where Nal Jal Seva comes in. Built on DIGIT, it empowers local village committees to take charge of their water systems. Now, communities like Neerja’s can manage billing, monitor expenses, and keep the systems working seamlessly, ensuring water is there to stay.
Capacity Building Efforts
In the last week of July, we completed a 4-day training program focusing on the Nal Jal Seva application, the jointly set up National Digital Platform which is built on eGov’s DIGIT platform. The training was conducted at SPM NIWAS which engaged 14 states. Key objectives included enhancing state-level understanding, training JJM National Information Centre (NIC) and State IT teams, and gathering feedback on the Nal Jal Seva product roadmap. The program included breakout sessions for in-depth discussions on state-specific experiences and challenges. Enthusiasm was high, revealing opportunities for collaboration with new states such as Jharkhand, Mizoram, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, with plans to seek final consent from their leadership.
Voices from the Ground
“Before generating the bill, we send an SMS to all households. After receiving the SMS, some people come to us to make payment on their own. We don’t even have to go to their house.”
— Sonu Kumar, a maintainer from Gram Panchayat Bishanpur Bakhri, Muzaffarpur
In Assam, Nal Jal Seva is already making an impact. As the first state to start billing consumers through this platform, Assam now covers 10 schemes and 2,138 consumers in 8 villages. This initiative is all about empowering communities, giving them control over their water management, and ensuring transparency and efficiency for years to come.
For women like Neerja, the benefits are immediate. No more exhausting treks for water—clean, reliable water is now just a tap away, freeing up time and energy for education, work, and family life.
The Road Ahead
This is just the beginning. With Nal Jal Seva, access to safe water is becoming a sustainable reality for rural communities across India. As more states and villages join the platform, the mission of ensuring clean water for all continues to gain momentum.
