While rural Uttarakhand had been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF) in June 2017, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that was tabled in the Uttarakhand assembly stated that the declaration of the state as ODF was “incorrect”.

The guidelines on Swajal provide details of the scheme, implementation arrangements, financing provisions and roles and responsbilities of various stakeholders involved in its implementation. The guidelines have to be read in conjunction with National Rural Drinking water Programme issued by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

The Government of India launched the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) in April 2009 by modifying the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) and subsuming earlier sub-mission/schemes. A performance audit of the NRDWP was conducted to assess how far the objectives of the Programme were achieved.

This paper explores the benefits of a coordinated approach to land and water governance in efforts to address the global food security challenge and the need to tackle gender inequality in access to and control over land and water. The scarcity of arable land and freshwater is at the centre of debates about the global food security challenge.

About 76 percent of rural habitations in India have achieved a fully covered (FC) status, under the National Rural Drinking Water Program, with basic minimum service level of 40 liters per capita daily (lpcd), but this coverage is primarily through hand-pumps and does not necessarily translate into sustainable and good quality service delivery.

This Report of the Committee deals with the action taken by the Government on the recommendations contained in the Second Report (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on the subject ‘Evaluation of Rural Drinking Water Programmes' pertaining to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.