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.

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