• Rinku

The supply of safe drinking water, one of the Millennium Development Goals and most important basic needs of life, is currently the major challenge before the governments in developing countries including India. Availability of drinking water directly or indirectly affects the health, education and earnings. Women and children bear the primary responsibility for drinking water collection in India.As per census 2011, in rural India 37.8 per cent households used tap water for drinking and 35.7 per cent used hand pumps, 7.6 per cent tubewells, 16.5 per cent wells and 2.4 per cent used other sources of drinking water. Haryana, the study area, an agrarian prosperous state, lies in north western part of India. The research is based on primary (field survey) as well as secondary data (Census of India and Public Health and Engineering Department etc.). The present research paper attempts to answer the following questions: How is the question of equity in drinking water addressed in an agrarian state in India? What are the policy interventions, technological progress and programmes in vogue to ensure safe drinking water across different parts of the state? In Haryana, 65 per cent population lives in 6841 Villages and more than one-fifth or 22 per cent population in village belongs to scheduled castes. Haryana is emerging as a modern state and has made tremendous progress in the availability of drinking water. While 63 per cent of rural households in rural Haryana using tap water as source of drinking water in 2011, and in 1981 it was only 20 per cent. Use of well water as a source of drinking water in rural Haryana has also been changed significantly. While it was 53 per cent in 1981 and it decreased at the level of 4.5 per cent in 2011. In common with physiography, there is a significant spatial disparity in sources of drinking water in rural Haryana. The 87 per cent households in Panchkula used tap water where as only 32 per cent households in Mewat district have access to tap water. In Mewat 18 per cent households used well water for drinking, top in Haryana and in Karnal it is only 0.1 per cent. While using the traditional sources of drinking water such as well, there is a deprivation and untouchability in various caste groups.

Drinking Water, Rural Haryana, Spatial Disparity, Agriculture, Sources.

"Spatial Dimensions of Drinking Water in an Agriculturally Prosperous State Haryana, India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 7, page no.901-915, July-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR180Z022.pdf

"Spatial Dimensions of Drinking Water in an Agriculturally Prosperous State Haryana, India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 7, page no. pp901-915, July-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR180Z022.pdf