New Delhi: More than 81 percent of rural households in India now have tap water connections, with over 12.58 crore additional homes covered under the Jal Jeevan Mission since its launch in 2019, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
In a written response to a parliamentary question, Minister of State for Jal Shakti V. Somanna said that as of March 3, 2026, around 15.82 crore rural households, which is about 81.71 percent of the total 19.36 crore rural households in the country, have been provided with tap water supply in their homes under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal.
The scheme, launched in August 2019, aims to ensure assured supply of safe drinking water in adequate quantity and prescribed quality to every rural household through functional tap connections.
At the start of the mission, only 3.23 crore rural households, or about 16.7 percent, had tap water connections. Since then, more than 12.58 crore additional rural households have been connected under the programme, the minister said.
The minister said work is currently underway to extend tap water supply to the remaining 3.54 crore rural households across different states and Union Territories. According to the details provided by the minister, Jharkhand, Kerala and Sikkim are among the states where more than 40 percent of rural households are still without tap water connections.
To ensure the quality of drinking water supplied under the mission, the Bureau of Indian Standards’ BIS 10500 norms have been adopted as the benchmark. States and Union Territories can use up to two percent of their annual allocation under the scheme for water quality monitoring and surveillance activities.
These include strengthening water quality testing laboratories, procuring equipment and chemicals, hiring trained personnel and conducting community-based monitoring using field test kits, along with awareness programmes on water quality.
The government has also issued a “Concise Handbook for Monitoring Water Quality of Piped Drinking Water Supply to Rural Households” in December 2024 to guide states in testing water quality at different stages, including at the source, treatment plants, storage facilities and distribution points.
The ministry also conducts periodic assessments of the functionality of tap water connections through independent third-party agencies.
According to the Functionality Assessment conducted in 2024, 98.1 percent of households in surveyed villages had tap connections, while 87 percent reported receiving water in the previous week. About 84 percent households said they receive water as per schedule and 80 percent households reported receiving the minimum prescribed supply of 55 litres per capita per day.
The survey also found that 76 percent households were receiving water free from bacteriological contamination and 81 percent of water sources were free from chemical contamination. Overall, about 76 percent of household tap connections were found to be fully functional in terms of quantity, quality and regularity of supply.
