Speaking soon after launching the Jal Jeevan Mission App and the Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh, the Prime Minister said the scheme was a big movement towards decentralization as it empowered the gram panchayats and water committees to deal with the issue. The Jal Jeevan Mission was launched on August 15, 2019 and aims to bring tap water to homes.
“Friends, we have seen several movies, read stories and poems which inform at length how women and children in rural areas walk miles to get water. In the minds of some people, images of such difficulties emerge whenever you mention a village, but the question arises in very few minds as to why these people have to walk everyday to a river or a pond to get water and why water is not available at their homes,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said as chief minister of Gujarat, where water scarcity was a major issue, he was familiar with drought like situations and knew the importance of every drop of water. However, others in power had been insensitive.
“Those on whom the responsibility of formulating policies lay for a long time should have asked this question to themselves, but they did not do so as they had not seen such water scarcity where they lived. They did not know the pain of living with scarce water. There was ample water at home and a swimming pool with water. There was water everywhere. Such people had never seen poverty. So, poverty for them was an attraction and something to be depicted in literature and debates,” he said.
During his tenure as Prime Minister, more than ‘2.25 Lakh Crore have been given directly to gram panchayats for water and cleanliness management, the Prime Minister said. He maintained that the government is given due importance to transparency while giving powers of management and planning to the gram panchayats. The Centre is committed to gram swaraj, he added.
The Jal Jeevan Mission is women and village driven. The programme empowers girls who can now spend more time to their education as they do not have to walk miles to depends on jan bhagidari.
Water connection has been provided to 1.25 lakh villages in 80 districts since the launch of this scheme. In the aspirational districts, the number of tap water connections has increased from 31 lakh to 1.16 crore.
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