India’s government has approved a major restructuring of the Jal Jeevan Mission, the country’s flagship rural drinking water programme, with new funding aimed at shifting the initiative from infrastructure construction to long-term service delivery.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, endorsed plans to expand the programme’s financial outlay to ₹8.69 lakh crore, with the central government’s share rising to ₹3.59 lakh crore. The additional funding amounts to roughly $17.6 billion, according to industry reporting.
Launched in 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission seeks to provide piped drinking water to rural households across India under the “Har Ghar Jal” objective. At the start of the programme, only about 17% of rural households had tap water connections. Since then more than 12.5 crore additional households have been connected, raising national coverage to over 81% of the roughly 19.36 crore rural households identified by states and union territories.
Under the revised approach, the government intends to move beyond infrastructure construction and place greater emphasis on governance, maintenance, and reliable water services. A national digital platform called Sujalam Bharat will be introduced to map drinking water supply systems from source to household tap. Each village will receive a unique service area identification to support monitoring and accountability.
Local institutions will also play a larger role in programme delivery. Gram Panchayats and village water and sanitation committees will be involved in commissioning schemes through a process known as Jal Arpan. Villages will be formally declared “Har Ghar Jal” only after confirming that systems for operation and maintenance are in place.
Community participation is expected to form part of the new framework. The programme will encourage an annual event known as Jal Utsav, intended to review water systems and promote local responsibility for maintaining them.
The revised initiative, sometimes described as Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0, aims to provide tap water connections to all rural households by December 2028 while strengthening long term sustainability. Officials say the new phase will rely on coordination across multiple government departments to ensure the continued operation and upkeep of rural water infrastructure.
