UPPSC 2022 Prelims Q59: 'Jal Jeevan Mission' Scheme was declared in the Union

Q: What is the answer to UPPSC 2022 Prelims Q59?

C. Correct — C, 2021 – 22. The commission's key marks the Union Budget of 2021-22, presented on 1 February 2021, and that year corresponds to the announcement of the JAL JEEVAN MISSION (URBAN). In that Budget the Finance Minister announced a mission for universal water supply in all 4,378 urban local bodies, with 2.86 crore household tap connections and liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities, at an indicative outlay of about Rs 2,87,000 crore over five years. (The Rs 50,011 crore figure often quoted for 2021-22 belongs to the RURAL mission's budget estimate that year, not to the urban one.) THE STUDENT MUST ALSO KNOW THE OTHER HALF OF THIS, because it is what the plain name means: the Jal Jeevan Mission WITHOUT the word 'Urban' — the rural mission, 'Har Ghar Jal' — was announced in the Union Budget of 2019-20, presented on 5 July 2019, and was formally launched by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2019. That is option (b). So the key's 2021-22 is correct for the urban mission and the paper's unqualified phrasing points more naturally at the rural one. Following the settled practice for this series, this card argues the commission's marked answer, which decides the marks, and states the sourced record plainly alongside it. Notably, UPPSC itself dated the Jal Jeevan Mission to August 2019 in a match-list question two years later, in its 2024 paper.

UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 59 of 150

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official UPPSC answer key.

'Jal Jeevan Mission' Scheme was declared in the Union Budget of which Financial Year ?

(a)2022 – 23
(b)2019 – 20
(c)2021 – 22
(d)2020 – 21

Answer

Why

Correct — C, 2021 – 22. The commission's key marks the Union Budget of 2021-22, presented on 1 February 2021, and that year corresponds to the announcement of the JAL JEEVAN MISSION (URBAN). In that Budget the Finance Minister announced a mission for universal water supply in all 4,378 urban local bodies, with 2.86 crore household tap connections and liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities, at an indicative outlay of about Rs 2,87,000 crore over five years. (The Rs 50,011 crore figure often quoted for 2021-22 belongs to the RURAL mission's budget estimate that year, not to the urban one.) THE STUDENT MUST ALSO KNOW THE OTHER HALF OF THIS, because it is what the plain name means: the Jal Jeevan Mission WITHOUT the word 'Urban' — the rural mission, 'Har Ghar Jal' — was announced in the Union Budget of 2019-20, presented on 5 July 2019, and was formally launched by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2019. That is option (b). So the key's 2021-22 is correct for the urban mission and the paper's unqualified phrasing points more naturally at the rural one. Following the settled practice for this series, this card argues the commission's marked answer, which decides the marks, and states the sourced record plainly alongside it. Notably, UPPSC itself dated the Jal Jeevan Mission to August 2019 in a match-list question two years later, in its 2024 paper.

Why the others are wrong

(a)2022 – 23 — Wrong under either reading. The Budget of 2022-23, presented on 1 February 2022, only four months before this exam, made further allocations to a mission that already existed — it did not create it. Neither the rural mission nor the urban mission was announced in that year.
(b)2019 – 20 — The commission's key does not mark this option, so it earns no marks — but a candidate should understand exactly what it corresponds to, because it is not a random year. The Union Budget of 2019-20, presented on 5 July 2019, is where the Jal Jeevan Mission proper, the RURAL mission, was announced, with an allocation of about Rs 10,001 crore and the goal of a functional tap connection for every rural household by 2024; the Prime Minister launched it publicly on 15 August 2019. On the unqualified words 'Jal Jeevan Mission' this option is defensible, and it is the answer a well-prepared candidate would very reasonably have marked. The key marks (c), which fits the Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) announced in the Budget of 2021-22.
(d)2020 – 21 — Nothing in the Jal Jeevan family originates in the Budget of 2020-21, presented on 1 February 2020. It sits between the rural mission's announcement in July 2019 and the urban mission's announcement in February 2021, and is offered purely as a plausible-looking neighbour to both.

Concept

There are two Jal Jeevan Missions, and separating them dissolves most of the confusion around this question. The Jal Jeevan Mission (rural) was announced in the Budget of 2019-20 and launched on 15 August 2019, under the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in the Ministry of Jal Shakti. It subsumed the earlier National Rural Drinking Water Programme and set a single measurable target — a functional household tap connection delivering adequate, regular, safe drinking water to every rural household by 2024 — with implementation shared between the Centre and the States and with village water and sanitation committees, or Pani Samitis, at the local level. The Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) was announced two Budgets later, on 1 February 2021, and is the urban counterpart: universal tap water coverage across all 4,378 urban local bodies, together with sewerage and septage management in the 500 AMRUT cities, at an indicative outlay of about Rs 2,87,000 crore over five years.

The lesson this question teaches is bigger than the answer to it. Government schemes are increasingly issued in matched rural and urban pairs — Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin and Urban, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin and Urban, and now Jal Jeevan Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) — and the two halves of a pair often begin years apart. A candidate who records only 'Jal Jeevan Mission: 2019' or only 'Jal Jeevan Mission: 2021' will be caught by whichever half the examiner had in mind. The safe habit is to store both dates against the scheme name, and, separately, to distinguish three different dates that examiners use interchangeably: the Budget announcement, the Cabinet approval and the public launch. For the rural mission the announcement was 5 July 2019 and the launch 15 August 2019 — the same financial year, so no trap; but for many schemes those dates fall in different years and the question turns entirely on which one is asked for.

Key facts

Jal Jeevan Mission (rural), 'Har Ghar Jal' — announced in the Union Budget of 2019-20 on 5 July 2019 with about Rs 10,001 crore, and launched by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2019.
Its target is a functional household tap connection for every rural household by 2024; it replaced the National Rural Drinking Water Programme and is run by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) — announced in the Union Budget of 2021-22 on 1 February 2021, covering all 4,378 urban local bodies with 2.86 crore household tap connections.
The urban mission's indicative outlay was about Rs 2,87,000 crore over five years and it includes liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. The Rs 50,011 crore 2021-22 figure is the RURAL mission's budget estimate and should not be attributed to JJM (Urban).
The commission's key marks 2021-22, the urban mission's year; the unqualified name 'Jal Jeevan Mission' ordinarily denotes the rural mission of 2019-20 — and UPPSC's own 2024 paper dated the Jal Jeevan Mission to August 2019.

Two missions, one name — which Budget announced which

Jal Jeevan Mission (rural) — 'Har Ghar Jal'→Announced in the Union Budget of 2019-20 (5 July 2019), about Rs 10,001 crore; launched 15 August 2019; tap water to every rural household by 2024. This is option (b).

Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban)→Announced in the Union Budget of 2021-22 (1 February 2021); all 4,378 urban local bodies, 2.86 crore tap connections, about Rs 2,87,000 crore over five years. This is the key's option (c).

Budget 2020-21→Nothing in the Jal Jeevan family originates here — it falls between the two announcements. Option (d).

Budget 2022-23→Made further allocations to a mission already running; it created neither half. Option (a).

The key marks (c), which is right for the URBAN mission. The plain name 'Jal Jeevan Mission' normally means the rural mission announced in the Budget of 2019-20 — option (b). Learn both dates against the one name.

Study next

The Ministry of Jal Shakti and its two departments — Drinking Water and Sanitation, and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga RejuvenationRural–urban scheme pairs — Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin and Urban, PMAY Gramin and Urban, AMRUT and its successor AMRUT 2.0Predecessor programmes in rural water supply — the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme, the National Rural Drinking Water Programme and SwajaldharaWater quality issues that the mission targets — arsenic and fluoride contamination, and the districts of Uttar Pradesh affected by themHow to read a Union Budget for prelims — new schemes announced, allocations changed, and the difference between an announcement, a Cabinet approval and a launch

Common traps

Treating 'Jal Jeevan Mission' as one scheme. There are two — rural, announced in the Budget of 2019-20, and urban, announced in the Budget of 2021-22 — and this question's key uses the urban one while the unqualified name points at the rural one.
Confusing the Budget announcement with the public launch. The rural mission was announced on 5 July 2019 and launched on 15 August 2019; for many other schemes those two events fall in different financial years.
Assuming a scheme belongs to the Budget in which it received a large allocation. Both the 2020-21 and the 2022-23 Budgets funded water supply, but neither created a Jal Jeevan Mission.

UPPSC asks scheme questions in three interchangeable shapes — the launch year, a scheme-against-date match list, and a chronological ordering — and it has used all three on this very scheme, dating the Jal Jeevan Mission to August 2019 in a 2024 match list and placing it in a chronological sequence in 2025. The practical lesson from the discrepancy between that 2024 answer and this 2022 key is to prepare both the rural and the urban date for every paired scheme, and to expect the commission to test either.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2006_GS1_Q222006Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements in respect of welfare schemes launched by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India: 1. Drinking water for rural areas is one of the components of the Bharat Nirman Plan. 2. In the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 there is a provision that the statutory minimum wage applicable to agriculture workers in the State has to be paid to the workers under the Act. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer(c) Both 1 and 2

Rural drinking water as a named component of a flagship programme, fifteen years before the Jal Jeevan Mission. It shows the long institutional line the mission belongs to — Bharat Nirman, then the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, then Jal Jeevan Mission — which is the context a candidate needs to date any one of them correctly.

UPPSC_2024_PRE_PaperI_Q912024Open & attempt →

Match List-I with List-II and choose the correct answer using the codes given below the lists : List-I (Yojana Name) A. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin B. Jal Jeevan Mission C. Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin D. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana List-II (Date of Launch) 1. May, 2016 2. October, 2014 3. August, 2019 4. November, 2016 Codes :

(a) A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4
(b) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
(c) A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4
(d) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2

Answer(b) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1

The same commission on the same scheme two years later — and here it pairs the Jal Jeevan Mission with August 2019, the launch date of the RURAL mission. Reading the two papers together is the clearest possible demonstration that the name covers two missions with two different dates, and that a candidate must carry both.

UPPSC_2025_PRE_PaperI_Q152025Open & attempt →

Consider the following and arrange them in the correct chronological order. 1. Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission 3. Jal Jeevan Mission 4. National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy Select the correct answer from the code given below :

(a) 2, 4, 1, 3
(b) 2, 4, 3, 1
(c) 4, 2, 1, 3
(d) 4, 2, 3, 1

Answer(a) 2, 4, 1, 3

The Jal Jeevan Mission again, this time placed in sequence against JNNURM, AMRUT and the urban housing policy — and treated as the most recent of the four. Confirms that the mission's date is a live UPPSC item across several papers and several question formats.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Jal Jeevan Mission (rural) aims to provide a functional household tap connection to every rural household by which year ?
- (a)2022
- (b)2024
- (c)2025
- (d)2030
Answer(b) 2024 — 'Har Ghar Jal' set 2024 as the target year for a functional tap connection supplying adequate, regular and safe drinking water to every rural household, when it was launched on 15 August 2019.
practice — not a real PYQ
The Jal Jeevan Mission is implemented by which one of the following ministries of the Government of India ?
- (a)Ministry of Rural Development
- (b)Ministry of Jal Shakti
- (c)Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
- (d)Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Answer(b) Ministry of Jal Shakti — the rural mission runs through its Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The urban counterpart, Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban), is handled by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which is why the two are often confused.