Pots to Pipelines: Ethnographic Narratives of Women's Engagements With Water in Jorhat District of Assam

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the gendered dimensions of water access and management in rural Assam, India, through ethnographic insights derived from fieldwork conducted in Jorhat district under an ongoing Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) sponsored project: titled “Assessing the impact of Jal Jeevan Mission in Rural Households and Women Empowerment: A Case Study of Four Districts in Assam.” The study captures the complex interplay between woman's lived realities and the state‐led Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)—a national initiative aimed at delivering functional household tap water connections (FHTCs) to every rural home. Drawing from unstructured interviews, focused group discussions, and observations in 10 villages, the paper uncovers how the burden of water collection has shaped social roles, economic opportunities, and lived realities. The transition from traditional ways of collecting water to piped water supply, although partially successful, reveals loopholes in implementation, infrastructural gaps, and continued challenges of contamination. Through vivid narratives—from an elderly woman recalling pre‐JJM water struggles to weavers adapting traditional water filtering methods for their livelihood and a homemaker‐turned‐entrepreneur empowered by time saved—the study highlights both the transformative and contested outcomes of the mission. It critically assesses how gender, caste, class, and rurality intersect with water access and argues for a more inclusive and context‐sensitive evaluation of large‐scale water governance schemes like the Jal Jeevan Mission.