SENAPATI, Oct 30: Youth Rise for Change (YR4C), Senapati has issued a detailed clarification refuting the false claim made during a recent public discussion that data from the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and other sanitation projects were merged with the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) dashboard. The organization termed the statement by a former PHED officer as “misleading and factually incorrect.”
The issue surfaced following a public talk show organized by the Times of Senapati on October 25, at the DRDA Hall, Senapati, which sparked widespread public debate over the accuracy of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) data displayed on the Government of India’s eJal Shakti portal.
The live discussion brought together R. K. Paul Chawang, social activist and representative of Youth Rise for Change (YR4C), Gaijinlung Thaimei, Executive Engineer (EE), PHED Senapati, and Lohrii Mao, Former EE, PHED Senapati, in the presence of a large public audience.
During the discussion, activist Paul Chawang raised concerns over the massive mismatch between official data and ground reality, stating that over 135 villages in Senapati District still lack even a single household tap connection, while the official JJM dashboard shows over 70% coverage.
In response, Former EE Lohrii Mao defended the department’s position by claiming that the data mismatch was due to the fact that “previous projects like low-cost toilets and Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) data were automatically merged with the eJal Shakti portal of Jal Jeevan Mission.”
This statement has caused confusion among the public and was widely perceived as an attempt to justify the discrepancies by linking two unrelated government missions.
Following the discussion, Youth Rise for Change (YR4C) conducted a detailed verification of official government documents and reports from the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS). The findings are categorical — there is no merging or transfer of Swachh Bharat (toilet) data with Jal Jeevan Mission’s Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) records.
Both missions are independent programs under the same ministry but maintain separate databases and objectives:
| Scheme | Year | Objective | Official Database |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) | 2014–2019 | Construction of household toilets for ODF villages | SBM-G MIS Portal (https://sbm.gov.in) |
| Jal Jeevan Mission | 2019–Present | Household tap connections for safe drinking water | eJal Shakti – JJM IMIS (https://ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport) |
As per the DDWS Annual Report 2022–23: “JJM and SBM(G) are being implemented in convergence to ensure holistic WASH outcomes at the village level. Both Missions maintain separate Management Information Systems (MIS). Data sharing and interoperability are being developed for monitoring, but the beneficiary databases remain distinct.”
— Ministry of Jal Shakti, Annual Report 2022–23, Government of India
Similarly, the JJM Operational Guidelines 2019 (Section 9.3) clearly state that: “JJM will use a dedicated IMIS to capture household-level data on Functional Tap Connections.”
No clause or instruction exists anywhere in the guidelines authorizing the merging of sanitation or toilet data from Swachh Bharat Mission.
Experts have attributed the data mismatch between field conditions and dashboard figures not to any “automatic merging,” but rather to procedural and reporting errors, including:
- Erroneous or inflated data entry by field agencies,
- Lack of proper household verification,
- Absence of third-party audits by independent bodies.
Such misreporting leads to inflated progress figures that do not reflect actual implementation on the ground.
YR4C emphasized that the misleading statement made by the former PHED officer risks confusing citizens and undermines legitimate concerns raised by civil society regarding transparency in government data.
The organization reiterated that public access to truthful information is critical for ensuring data integrity and accountability in taxpayer-funded welfare programs such as the Jal Jeevan Mission.
The YR4C called on:
- The PHED Department, Senapati, to issue an official clarification and correct false data entries.
- The District Administration to conduct a village-wise verification of FHTCs across all 135 villages.
- The Ministry of Jal Shakti to direct an independent audit of JJM implementation in Senapati District.
In its conclusion, YR4C reaffirmed that the claim linking Swachh Bharat data with Jal Jeevan Mission records is completely false and misleading. The Jal Jeevan Mission’s data on the eJal Shakti portal is separately managed under its own dedicated MIS.
