National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM)
Launched in 2019, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is a national mission-mode program that aims to
provide a Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household by 2024.
Our work as the Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU) involves instituting behaviour science within
NJJM to do the following:
- Identifying behavioural barriers and levers.
- Scientifically inform research on behaviour change
and
water.
- Designing (and piloting) interventions on the
ground.
- Working with partners in states, aspirational districts, ISA(s), and not-for-profits
to develop solutions - which catalyse, enable, and
enforce
behaviour change practices on the ground.
- Capacity building (both in the WaSH space and within
JJM).
- Advocacy - disseminating insights and generating
conversation on behaviour change in JJM through conferences, diagnostic reports,
hackathons,
etc.
Problem
As the behavioural advisor on the National Jal Jeevan Mission programme, the BIU is focused
on
developing green field interventions, using behaviours as levers for change.
More specifically, our research presently focuses on:
- Water quality - improving salience of water quality.
- Sustainability - improving conservation and grey water reuse.
- Community participation - Improving programme adherence.
Policy Ecosystem
The core objectives and the specific indicators that JJM is trying to move are:
- Safe Drinking Water: FHTC in every household,
improving
grey water reuse and water storage practices.
- Core Management of Water Resources: Improving the
community's participation and uptake of infrastructure maintenance and leading a
people's
movement in water management.
- Women Empowerment: Reducing drudgery in fetching
water
for women and increasing the percentage in attendance of school-going girls.
To achieve the goal, JJM has envisioned the act of providing FHTC to every household in:
- Pre-Implementation: Developing intent to get JJM and
communicating with institutions, with the help of Gram Panchayat (GP) and individual
households.
- During-Implementation: Creating water infrastructure
and
assets with the help of GP and the administration.
- Post-Implementation: After installation, actions
that
promote maintenance of a tap and sustainable water use, with the help of the GP and
household.
Diagnostic Research
After holding extensive stakeholder consultations (10 state teams of Tata Trusts, 28 Piramal
Foundation Water Fellows), field visits across 5 states(Gujarat, Jharkhand, AP, Rajasthan,
UP),
exhaustive literature and policy reviews, the diagnostic analysis of the BIU has narrowed on
a
few key behavioural motivators, barriers and early solutions of different agents
participating
in the JJM ecosystem.
4 key insights:
The insights and motivations behind different behaviours have been grouped on the following
categories/necessary behaviours, which are critical for the success of JJM as a programme:
- Ownership and Maintenance: Maintenance is crucial
for
each household to receive a regular supply of quality water as a service. However, in
some
cases, households were observed to have disengaged in maintenance behaviours.
Mental models that hinder maintenance largely revolve around disassociation of creation
from
ownership (the creator, i.e. the government, was responsible for maintenance, and not
the
owner, i.e. the family), location (taps located in the aangan were viewed as external,
while
taps within the house were internal and thus maintained) and the lack of trust in
responsible agents.
- Payment: Payment of monthly (and one-time) tariffs
is a
vital step in engaging the community and hiring and paying for operation and
maintenance.
However, due to the historical consumption of water as a free resource, and the lack of
value proposition, many households haven't started budgeting for tap water as a separate
expense. This issue is magnified by irregular payment collection systems, which disallow
low-income households to plan for future water bills.
- Consumption: Due to both novelty and convenience of
taps, some households are slowly moving away from erstwhile water conservation
behaviours.
For instance, earlier, while many houses in water-scarce regions stored water in drums,
they
were now observed to be throwing out stored water in the morning and at 3:45 pm in
anticipation of fresh water being made available at 4:00 pm the same day.
- Greywater management: Due to low costs of acquiring
fresh water, low awareness of water reuse (appropriate uses of reused water, methods of
collection, etc.), and low awareness of the connection between household consumption and
depleting groundwater tables, many households were observed not to be reusing greywater
or
not managing greywater appropriately.
Publication
Several of our research endeavours,and findings from the field have now translated into key
insights. These are available to read and download.
- Communications guidelines: An active playbook to
help
users understand various nuances of behaviour change communication, and develop
innovative
communication plans (or strategies) for JJM.
- Behavioural diagnostic report: A diagnosis of
people's
behaviours and motivations within the NJJM ecosystem, via a culmination of extensive
field
research, stakeholder consultations and literature analysis.
Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog