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— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 25, 2023
The Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, tweeting about the achievement said “The vision of our PM Sh. Narendra Modi ji, the relentless pursuit of the goals set out for Jal Jeevan Mission by the ministry and the effort of our team on ground has made this mega milestone possible”. The Union Minister further said “11 crore homes are now assured of health and well-being with this elixir of life reaching their doorsteps”.
Regular tap water supply relieves people, especially women and young girls, from carrying heavy bucket loads of water to meet their daily household needs thereby reducing age-old drudgery. The time saved from collecting water is used for income generation activities, learning new skills and supporting children’s education. In those villages where the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has reached, the adolescent girls no longer drop-out of school to help their mother walk long distance and get water to quench their thirst. It goes a long way in empowering and educating the girl child.
With focus on health and well-being of children, in 2020 on Gandhi Jayanti, a campaign was launched to provide tap water connection in all schools, anganwadi centres and ashramshalas (tribal residential schools) for drinking, cooking mid-day meal, hand washing and use in toilets. As on date, tap water supply has been provided in 8.84 lakh (85.79%) schools and 9.14 lakh (81.75%) anganwadi centres. 2 States (Goa and Kerala) and 3 UTs (A&N Islands, D&NH and D&D, J&K, Puducherry) are now providing 100% tap water connectivity in its schools and anganwadi centres and 16 States/ UTs are in the range of 90% or more, and moving fast to achieve saturation.
Following the bottom-up approach, JJM is being implemented as a decentralized, demand-driven community-managed programme with the aim to provide all rural households with adequate quantity (55 lpcd) water of prescribed quality in adequate pressure, on regular and long-term basis. So far over 5.20 lakh Pani Samitis/ Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC) formed under Jal Jeevan Mission to manage, operate and maintain in-village water supply infrastructure. On the front of Water Quality, more than 17 lakh women are trained for testing water samples using Field Test Kits (FTKs), which has led to the empowerment of women in rural areas.