The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of the Government of India is the largest drinking water scheme in the world. The vision is that every rural household has drinking water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality on a regular and long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvements  in the living standards of rural communities. Since the launch of the mission, tremendous progress has been made on the development of the infrastructure for the providing tap connections at the household level in rural areas and the JJM coverage has gone from 16% in 2019 to 73% in 2023. 

While this is a great achievement in itself, the critical challenge is now of sustaining the systems across the nation's vast landscape of over six lakh villages. Operating and maintaining infrastructure across such a distributed network demands intricate coordination and resources.

Different states and government bodies in India have created and shared guidelines and best practices on how these drinking water schemes can be managed. These serve as good resource materials for research on drawing parallels and understanding the intricacies of Operations & Maintenance ( O & M)  in different contexts in India. We will share the documents related to  O & M  to be analysed and frameworks/format for analysis, once you are selected. The assignment requires you to carefully go through all the documents and record your observations on each of the aspects/questions in the framework provided.

Your participation in this mission isn't merely a volunteer endeavour; it's a call to become a champion of sustainability, safeguarding the lifeline of clean water for rural communities. So, seize this opportunity to embark on a noble quest with us. Share your insights, experiences, and ideas and let's forge ahead together, transforming the landscape of water security . This volunteer opportunity involves a commitment of 15 - 20 hours of your time.

"Selected volunteer's insights and work will be attributed to the contributor for the outputs created by them. Any subsequent work based on these outputs will not carry attribution."

You are also free to use the analysis you do to publish your own articles and use it for your research or other purposes.