Water management is pivotal for addressing a myriad of development challenges, from poverty and food security to gender equity, impacting health, education, and livelihoods. In India, a country on the brink of water stress, effective water management is crucial, particularly in its rural areas where over 50% of households lack tap connections.
Several government and civil society interventions promote water management with the goal of making India’s villages water-secure. Most interventions, whether initiated by state and central governments or by civil society, are decentralised and emphasise the role of community members in managing and implementing them. This entails overseeing water infrastructure, sources like ponds and aquifers, and distribution systems. Community involvement is key, with local expertise in understanding groundwater, planning water usage, and maintaining systems being vital.
Given a rural unemployment rate of 7.18% as of April 2022, the water management sector presents significant job opportunities. Integrated water management, which includes managing source, infrastructure, and services, is both a job creator as well as a job enabler. Despite the understanding that water and water management are job creators and enablers, there is little record of community members or frontline workers’ tasks, responsibilities, training, skills, remuneration, and working conditions.
Recognising this urgency, the Jal Kaushal Project, led by JustJobs Network and funded by Arghyam, explores the nexus between jobs, skills, tasks, and rural water management. Despite the lack of comprehensive tracking, global research indicates substantial activity in the water management sector. Government, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) interventions have spurred sector growth in India. This report ‘Jobs and tasks in rural water management’ delves into central-level schemes, CSO and NGO initiatives, deciphering the jobs and tasks they necessitate and create in rural water management.
These preliminary findings provide a roadmap for detailed research, offering insights into the jobs, tasks, and skills required to manage rural water resources in India.
Conceptual outline for a water workforce
The realm of water management in India is intricate, spanning administrative units, technical disciplines, and intervention types. The report presents a methodology for mapping jobs and tasks in rural water management, offering a conceptual outline based on existing knowledge, subject to refinement through primary research.
Jobs, defined as an individual's tasks within a production unit, can be formal or informal, while work encompasses paid and unpaid activities. This study scrutinises attributes like formality, payment, workdays, gender, technology use, and tradition in water management. To construct a job and task map, three categories are identified: technical water jobs, supporting jobs, and administrative roles. Technical water jobs involve water resources management, infrastructure construction, and service provision. Supporting jobs provide non-technical assistance, while administrative roles supervise at various levels without specific water management training.
A conceptual outline categorises tasks and jobs, considering formality, payment, tradition, technology use, workdays, and administrative level. These jobs and tasks stem from supply- and demand-side interventions. Supply-side aims to augment water availability through new sources, storage, and technology. Demand-side focuses on reducing water consumption through infrastructure improvements, economic incentives, and public education. These interventions differ in their approach, with supply-side being government-centric, ensuring water supply, while demand-side involves bottom-up community-driven strategies, integrating water management with contextual considerations.
Understanding water work involves recognising formalities, payment structures, traditions, technology use, and workdays. This study discerns between technical, supporting, and administrative roles, addressing their characteristics across levels. Supply-side interventions enhance water availability, while demand-side strategies aim to reduce consumption, emphasising community-driven, context-specific integrated water management. The complexity of the rural water management sector in India necessitates a comprehensive mapping methodology to understand the diverse jobs and tasks contributing to sustainable water practices.
Mapping rural water cadre supply-side mapping
The water management landscape in India is intricate, involving diverse jobs and tasks across administrative units and intervention types. Supply-side endeavours, primarily led by the government, are top-down initiatives. This involves mapping activities at two levels: the Panchayati Raj System and Central Schemes.
Rural water cadre – Panchayati Raj: At the village level, water management operates through the Panchayati Raj system, facilitated by the Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat, Village Water and Sanitation Committees, and local institutions. Individual roles, like pump operators, contribute to the operation and maintenance of water infrastructure. Despite existing roles, there's a lack of comprehensive mapping on a national scale due to the differentiation between supply-side and demand-side interventions.
Rural water workforce – Central Schemes: Focusing on major missions like the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABhY), preliminary mapping of jobs and tasks reveals roles varying across states. These roles are anchored in departments at state and district levels, including Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation, Groundwater, and Panchayati Raj.
Demand-side mapping: Demand-side interventions, community-driven and need-informed, aim to promote water conservation. CSOs, NGOs, or the government support these initiatives, fostering behaviour change. The report delineates roles across village, district, and state levels.
Needs-informed jobs and roles in water management: Organisations like PRASARI, Samerth Charitable Trust, and Arid Communications and Technologies (ACT) contribute to participatory integrated rural water management. Unique roles, such as Water Entrepreneurs and Jal Sevaks, are tailored to specific village needs. Suggestions from these organisations include reframing frontline workers' tasks as ecological services, addressing funding gaps for planning purposes, and facilitating meaningful transitions to government positions or entrepreneurial opportunities.
Reflections
The focus on water and sanitation-related work has intensified, particularly with central government initiatives like ABhY and JJM. These programs rely on a frontline cadre at the village level and other water workers at the district and state levels. However, the actual roles, responsibilities, adequacy, and skills of these workers require further investigation. Preliminary findings by the researchers highlight several reflections.
Firstly, there appears to be limited job continuity for the frontline cadre, potentially leading to job insecurity and duplicated efforts on the part of service providers. Secondly, while continuous skill development is crucial due to technological advancements and climate change, there is a need to provide gainful opportunities for the skilled cadre. Many currently engage in water-related work voluntarily. Despite various programs, innovations, and trainings, a holistic view of water management, the jobs it creates, and associated skills is essential for guiding interventions toward water security.
Efficient governance mechanisms and resource allocation also significantly impact workers involved in water management. These reflections underscore the importance of addressing job continuity, providing livelihood opportunities, and adopting a comprehensive approach to water management.
The rural water management sector in India is gaining momentum, creating jobs and tasks that demand thorough documentation, investigation, and analysis. The report aims to highlight the sector's scale of activity and initiate a streamlined approach to recording and understanding jobs and tasks. The village, district, and state level maps provided are preliminary and not exhaustive but offer a foundational framework for future research.
The full report can be accessed here
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