Half of states yet to provide water supply to schools, anganwadi centres

16 per cent of schools lack water supply connection; 31.8 per cent still do not have tap water in urinals

In October 2020, the government launched a 100-day campaign to get water supply in all schools and anganwadi centres.

The programme complements Jal Jeevan Mission in providing functional tap water connections to all households by 2024. It was to be completed in January 2021, but 16 per cent of schools in the country still lack water supply connections.

Data from the Jal Jeevan Mission dashboard shows that over 21 per cent of Anganwadis do not have access to tap water supply. Since the mission's launch, nearly half of the states have provided tap water connections to all their schools and Anganwadis, but data shows that the progress of some of the most significant states has been slower.

Sixteen of the 33 states/UTs have been able to provide tap water connections to all schools, but coverage has been less than 75 per cent for eight states.

Bihar and Nagaland are nearing 100 per cent coverage, but Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh have been able to complete over 90 per cent coverage. Uttar Pradesh has covered 84.4 per cent of the schools. Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have covered 74.7 per cent and 74.3 per cent, respectively.

Jharkhand was the worst performer, with only 18 per cent of schools with functional tap water supply.

The performance was much worse in terms of the availability of tap water in urinals and toilets. Only 68.2 per cent of schools had tap water availability in toilets.

Jharkhand’s track record with respect to Anganwadi’s was much worse. Only 4.6 per cent of the 38,432 Anganwadi centres in Jharkhand had access to a water supply. For the country, the average was 78.8 per cent. Eleven states had below 75 per cent coverage of water supply in Anganwadi centres.

Nagaland, West Bengal, and Assam had below 50 per cent coverage, whereas Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh had 55-60 per cent coverage.

Uttar Pradesh had provided a water supply for 85 per cent of the Anganwadi centres in the state. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were among the larger states to achieve 100 per cent coverage.

Fifteen states/UTs of 33 had provided tap water connections to all Anganwadi centres until March 31, 2022.