All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) has been working along with the state and district-level Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and Water Sanitation and Support Organisation (WSSO) officials in Sirsa and Karnal for the implementation of the Government of India’s flagship scheme, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). The mission envisages a participatory approach to ensure a safe and sustainable rural water supply for every household. Gram Panchayats & rural communities have to plan, implement, manage, own, operate, and maintain their own in-village water supply systems; build the capacity of the stakeholders; and create awareness among the community on the significance of water in improving the quality of life. In this context, PHED Haryana is executing Single/Multi Village Schemes (MVS), aiming to provide water for drinking and other domestic usage year-round to approximately 30.96 lakh households across 6176 Gram Panchayats in 22 districts. The Sirsa and Karnal districts of Haryana have appointed AIILSG as the Implementation Support Agency (ISA) for the scheme.
The objectives of empaneling ISA are:
- Create awareness among rural communities about safe and piped drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.
- Facilitate the constitution of the Village Water Sewerage Committee (VWSC) while ensuring 50 per cent of its members are women.
- Encouraging the community to take new tap connections, deposit water connection charges and security deposits, and contribute 5–10 per cent of the capital cost of village infrastructure.
- Provide a platform for coordination between District Water & Sanitaiton Mission (DWSM), WSSO, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), and VWSC/GP Body/Pani Samiti and build the capacities of the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) functionaries to strengthen them.
- Assessing service delivery of Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) and ensuring 100 per cent FHTC coverage.
- Carrying out Social Behavioural Change Communication activities, training, and awareness campaigns for all the stakeholders, including schoolchildren.
Role of AIILSG
Community mobilisation activities include verifying baseline data for household tap connections, forming VWSC, and collecting household-level data regarding the service delivery of FHTCs. This ensures that each FHTC is linked to the head of the family’s Aadhar number on the GoI website, IMIS, web portal, and PHED portal. The activities also involve working closely with the district to strengthen VWSCs, GP bodies, Pani Samitis, and drinking water user groups, ensuring they meet at least once a month and maintain proper records of their meetings. Efforts are made to encourage rural households that have missed out on taking advantage of tap connections through home visits, corner meetings and campaigns to monitor the service delivery of FHTCs. Additionally, a village action plan (VAP) is prepared and approved by the respective gram panchayats. Capacity building of gram panchayat members and members of VWSCs, GP bodies, and Pani Samitis is also a key focus to ensure effective implementation and management.
Target fully Achieved
In all 338 target villages, the reconstitution and verification of VWSC have been completed. Training sessions were provided to VWSC members, gram panchayats, and other stakeholders. Village action plans were prepared and approved by gram panchayats. Various activities, including rallies, rath yatras, and school competitions, were conducted throughout the cluster. FTK and Water Quality Monitoring Orientation activities were also completed. We ensured at least 60 per cent FHTC were established and geo-tagged on the appropriate state platforms. Furthermore, 100 per cent geo-tagging, along with necessary data entry, was completed on all digital platforms, including IMIS and the PHED website.