ABSTRACT
Accessibility to water is traditionally subjected to multi-level social exclusions in the name of social (caste) and economic (class) identities in India. Paradoxically, the Global Water Partnership (GWP 1996) regime is overwhelmingly vociferous over issues of efficiency, and particularly silent on questions of equity in water accessibility. The recently introduced Service-Level Bench Marking (SLBM) program by the Ministry of Urban Development for the urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector is a flagship drive towards GWP. It has two key components, namely, full cost recovery and loss minimisation in terms of unaccounted water. Here, the definition of efficiency is understood only in monetary terms and the parameters of access-equity are hardly given any consideration. There is a strong possibility that such biased measurement of efficiency would further add to the hardships of the already excluded communities. To support this prediction, a few debatable features of SLBM have been discussed in this chapter with the help of a number of secondary data sources. In this vein, rationalities of the much-hyped link between increasing private sector participation and efficiency enhancements have been analysed. An attempt has also been made to analyse the weak aspects of SLBM and outline some suggestive measures to ameliorate the situation.
