Right to drinking water in India - A working paper by Centre for Economic and Social Studies

This working paper by Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad deals with the issue of right to drinking water, an issue that has assumed greater significance in India in recent years. Declarations by the United Nations and other international organisations, and judicial pronouncements by the Supreme Court of India from time to time that right to water is part of right to life as per Article 21 of the Constitution of India have, among others, contributed to the growing awareness on this issue.

There has been a paradigm shift towards treating water as an economic good in India as a result of the structural adjustment policies and the State has been adopting policies that favour the corporate business in water sector. This paper analyses some of these issues and argues that the entry of corporate capital in water sector together with the role of the State, poses threat to  realization of the right to water for the poor and marginalized groups in India.

It further argues that the right to food campaign should strongly incorporate the right to water in the struggle against hunger and starvation.  The inadequate (or denial of) access to water and sanitation to the poor in India has been going on for a long time even before the advent of economic reforms. The paper  makes the following conclusions -

• The post-liberalisation period has been marked by the hold of the rich and powerful middle class groups over the State machinery, their capacity to appropriate natural resources (public water at highly subsidized rate, in this case), and the inability of the poor to mobilise themselves into effective pressure groups over a longer period of time.
• The enthusiasm of the State in executing large water projects through these groups is not matched even remotely by the concern in practice to extend clean water supply to the poor on a sustainable basis.
• In the changed circumstances, the condition of the poor and their bargaining power seem to have got further weakened in the wake of the alliance of these powerful groups with the corporate capital in water sector.
• The State in India has become more emboldened today than ever before to divert municipal and river waters, and allow excessive extraction of groundwater, in favour of the corporate sector.
• The Courts, which give rulings in favour of the citizens on fundamental rights, are sadly not in a position, or rather reluctant at times, to step in to enforce the right to adequate clean water.

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