Centre for Social Research (CSR) India, in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) India, held a knowledge sharing workshop on ’Jal Jeevan Mission in Karnataka’ at The Woodrose, Bangalore on 15 November 2022. The workshop was held in a hybrid manner - some of the speakers and participants joined the workshop virtually.
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is an initiative by the Indian Government "to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all household in rural India". While there has been commendable progress on this target throughout India, some states like Karnataka still have a long way to go. Today, only about 58% of the total households in Karnataka have access to safe drinking water, and major disparities exist between urban and rural areas.
With HSF support, CSR conducted a study entitled ‘Promoting Sustainable IWRM in the Implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Karnataka’. The study identifies gaps and challenges of putting the JJM into practice in the state and provides suggestions for making the implementation process more efficient, socially equitable and ecologically sustainable.
The knowledge sharing workshop helped share the study findings with the key national and state stakeholders, which included water and gender experts, government officials, civil society members, and community from the project intervention areas in Karnataka. CSR will use the stakeholder inputs to develop policy recommendations for the responsible authorities in Karnataka to help make the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission efficient, inclusive, and sustainable.
The following points represent key takeaways from the workshop: