Employment generation potentials in the implementation of a rural drinking water supply program: evidence from India's Jal Jeevan Mission

Policymakers in India are finding it challenging to generate adequate employment to meet the requirements of the growing population. An avenue consistently used is to invest in large-scale public infrastructure projects. In 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was launched with the aim of providing potable drinking water to every rural household in India. Underscoring the large investments in infrastructure development, the mission holds significant potential to create employment. The evidence base of studies assessing the effect of rural development programs on employment was weak. In this backdrop, we assessed the employment generation potentials of JJM at various phases of its implementation. We utilized secondary and scheme-level primary data across the states of India and used the input–output model and ratio method to assess employment prospects. Our results suggest that JJM has the potential to generate an average of 5.99 million person-years of direct and 22.25 million person-years of indirect employment during the construction phase, and 1.11 million person-years of additional direct employment annually during the maintenance phase. Our study highlights the spillover effects of public investments in the form of employment generation and indicates that the impact of JJM is likely to be substantial once the program is complete and operational