Why in News?

• The PM addressed a state-level Mahila Saksham Melava or Empowered Women’s Meet of Self Help Groups, organized by Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission (UMED), in Aurangabad
• Marking the ahead-of-date achievement of 8 crore LPG connections under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the PM distributed LPG connections to five beneficiaries.
• The PM said that Jal Jeevan Mission has been launched in order to free women from the trouble of having to toil hard to fetch water.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana:

• The PMUY is a scheme to provide LPG (liquid petroleum gas) to households below the poverty line. This is to have universal coverage of cooking gas in the country. The chief aim of this scheme to protect the health of the women and children in homes where unclean cooking fuels are used.
• About 10 crore households in the country use firewood, dung cakes, coal, etc. as their cooking fuel.
• The smoke emanating from such stoves are alarming and they cause severe health problems for the people living in such houses, especially the women who use them to cook food.
• As per WHO, about 5 lakh fatalities in India occur because of unclean cooking fuel.
• They cause severe respiratory diseases and problems as well.
• Additionally, there is also the hassle of collecting firewood from mostly unsafe places.
• To avoid these problems, the government came up with this scheme.
• It was inaugurated in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1st May, 2016.
• This will go a long way in making women more empowered.

PMUY Features:

• Under this scheme, 5 crore connections are to be provided to the people needing them.
• BPL families will be offered a support of Rs.1600 per connection. This is for the cylinder, booklet, pressure regulator, safety hose, etc. and will be borne by the government itself.
• Apart from these, the scheme also provides interest-free loans to buy stove and refill by oil marketing companies.
• The connections would be given in the name of women of the households.
• An initial outlay of Rs.8000 crore was sanctioned for the implementation of the scheme.
• The authorities would identify BPL families based on the Socio Economic Caste Census data.
• The scheme is also expected to create employment to the tune of about a lakh. It will also boost the ‘Make in India’ programme for manufacturers of gas cylinders, stoves, gas hose and regulators. Only domestic manufacturers are engaged in this.
• It is also a business opportunity to the tune of a minimum of Rs.10000 crore.

Jal Jeevan Mission:

• Major objective of Jal Jeevan Mission is to provide piped water supply (Har Ghar Jal) to all rural and urban households by 2024.
• It also aims to create local infrastructure for rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and management of household waste water for reuse in agriculture.
• According to the data published in various reports, about half of the country’s households don’t have access to piped water supply.
• It is an urgent requirement of water conservation in the country because of the decreasing amount of groundwater level.
• Therefore, Jal Jeevan Mission will focus on integrated demand and supply management of water at the local level.

Benefits of Jal Jeevan Mission:

• Household pipeline water supply
• Clean and drinkable water
• Recharge of ground water level
• Better local infrastructure
• Less water-borne diseases
• Less water wastage