The workshop was titled, From Infrastructure to Institutional Strengthening: Community-Led Operation & Maintenance
10 March, 2026, Bengaluru: The Jal Jeevan Mission Office at IIM Bangalore, with the support of UNICEF, organized a one-day regional workshop under Jal Jeevan Mission / Rural Drinking Water Supply Schemes on 20 February, 2026. The workshop was titled ‘From Infrastructure to Institutional Strengthening: Community-Led Operation & Maintenance’.
The workshop brought together participants from seven states, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh, and senior administrators, engineers, academic experts, civil society partners, and development agencies. It provided a consultative platform to identify State-level experiences and challenges in operationalizing community-led O&M frameworks under JJM, facilitate peer learning and exchange of best practices, and outline priority action points and technical support for States and supporting institutions to strengthen O&M. Prof. Gopal Naik, Jal Jeevan Mission Chair Professor, Centre for Public Policy, IIMB, opened and provided context setting on Community-led O&M under Jal Jeevan Mission.
Click here for Workshop Report
The workshop opened with a national perspective on O&M under the Jal Jeevan Mission by Mr. Manish Wasuja, UNICEF Delhi, followed by Prof. Gopal Naik, who presented key insights on community participation and pathways for implementing community-led O&M frameworks.
The programme included presentations on community-managed O&M models from Kerala and Telangana, along with civil society experiences from AKRSP (Bihar) and SKDRDP (Karnataka). A technical session by Ms. Bhawana Luthra, PriMove, focused on strengthening community engagement through social and behaviour change approaches. The workshop also featured a roundtable with senior officials from participating states on ‘State and Community: Defining roles for sustainable O&M under Jal Jeevan Mission,’ concluding with discussions on follow-up actions and collaborative support for states.
