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A silent yet impactful transformation is underway in India. As water is flowing into Indian households through taps, women are rolling up their sleeves and joining the workforce. The humble tap has helped women supplement household incomes. Instead of walking miles for water, they are now boosting the country’s economy.
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), aimed at providing tap water supply to every rural household, has resulted in an increase in women’s participation in agriculture and allied activities, a recent report by the State Bank of India (SBI) has revealed.
Another working paper recently released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has also revealed that the female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose in almost all states. Concurring with the data furnished by the SBI report, the EAC-PM paper has also revealed that women in rural areas have witnessed greater gains in joining the workforce than their counterparts in urban areas between 2017-18 and 2022-23.
HOW TAP WATER IN VILLAGES HAS HELPED RURAL WOMEN JOIN INDIA’S WORKFORCE
The Jal Jeevan Mission, launched in 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been a game-changer for rural Indian women.
At its inception, only 17% of rural households (3.23 crore) had tap-water connections. As of October 2024, the mission has extended this coverage to 78.62%, providing tap water to over 15.20 crore rural households, according to the SBI report.
By eliminating the time spent on fetching water, a responsibility borne by women in rural India, the mission has freed millions to pursue agriculture, allied activities, and other forms of employment.
The SBI report links an 8 percentage-point decline in households fetching water from outside premises to a 7.4 percentage-point increase in women’s participation in the workforce.
The Jal Jeevan Mission that the SBI report cited, however, covers only rural India, as the scheme was focussed on providing safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to village households in the country.
More women participating in farm work helps reduce labour costs, which is a critical component of agricultural expenses.
The rising input costs, especially labour, pose a significant challenge for small and marginal farmers. Hence, with women increasingly joining hands on the farmland, would definitely help the farming families negate the effects of labour cost and other agricultural inputs.
A clear pan-Indian picture emerges from the EAC-PM paper.
INDIAN WOMEN, ESPECIALLY RURAL, FLOCKING TO WORK
The female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose across nearly all Indian states, with rural areas outpacing urban areas between 2017-18 and 2022-23, said the paper co-authored by EAC-PM member Shamika Ravi, and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) academic Mudit Kapoor.
While the rural female LFPR rose to 41.5% from 24.6% during 2017-18 to 2022-23, the urban LFPR rose to 25.4% from 20.4%, the paper revealed.
The rural female LFPR saw an impressive increase of 17 percentage points, while the urban female LFPR rose by a modest 5 percentage points between 2017-18 and 2022-23, according to the paper.
The surge in the rural numbers, revealed in the EAC-PM paper, goes with the trend tied to the government’s Jal Jeevan Mission, shown in the SBI report.
The EAC-PM paper also noted the importance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, which focusses on an “inclusive women-led development model”.
MUDRA, DRONE DIDI AMONG SCHEMES THAT EMPOWERED WOMEN
It has hailed several initiatives and schemes of that Modi-led Centre, such as, the Mudra, the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile, and the NAMO Drone Didi, that reflect the “government’s intention to further the women-led development model”
The LFPR is the percentage of people working or looking for work compared to the total population aged 15 and above.
Therefore, the female labour force participation rate (LFPR) is a “crucial indicator of women’s economic empowerment and overall economic inclusiveness,” notes the paper published in December, that accounted for around 2.5 million individuals.
To sum up, the Jal Jeevan Mission’s milestone of covering over 78% of rural households with tap water connections has profoundly impacted lives, saving time, reducing drudgery, and enabling women to contribute more effectively to the economy. It seems tap water has helped tap a larger section of women to boost the country’s economy.
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