Mr. Rohit Kumar Prince will present his APS as per the detail below

Date: 26th September 2023

Time: 1500 - 1600 hrs.

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.1

Title: Rural Drinking Water Governance in India: Learnings from Bihar

Supervisor: Prof. N. C. Narayanan; Co-supervisor: Prof. Parmeshwar D. Udmale

RPC Members: Prof. Subodh Wagle and Prof. D. Parthasarathy

Abstract:

This study is based on rural drinking water (RDW) governance in Bihar. Bihar has not adopted a template that has been commonly followed in other states for RDW service provision. It relies on a decentralised approach through the Har Ghar Nal ka Jal Program by devolving powers within two departments: the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and the Panchayati Raj Department (PRD). Both departments proactively started working in 2016 to provide tap connections to all rural households. The preliminary findings indicate a top-down and highly technocratic dominant mode of program implementation rather than a community-oriented bottom-up approach.

This study also examines the major interventions in post-independent India’s rural drinking water sector—in the context of the ongoing Jal Jeevan Mission—to assess the progress made in the provision of the service as well as discern the challenges that continue to persist. Recognizing the preeminent role played by global financial institutions and intergovernmental organizations in the evolution of the sector, it traces the conceptual contours of major service provision models that were promoted globally over the last four decades. Subsequently, it highlights the specific programmatic elements—across different programs—through which these models substantively manifested in the Indian context. The sector witnessed a steady shift away from the traditional state-led top-down approach from the 1980s, first witnessed in the community management approach and subsequently through the demand-responsive approach that became the mainstay following the initiation of sectoral reforms.

The push to universalize service provision by 2024 marks the return to the earlier supply-driven approach led by the state and by the emphasis on community participation, it appears to be a prolongation of the dominant blueprint of the past three decades of experience. The failure to clearly define the role of the state is contributing to the absence of focus on state capacity at different levels to ensure rural drinking water service provision. This is partially a consequence of the superficial consolidation of elements from former models of service provision in the Jal Jeevan Mission.