Nandita Singh and her colleagues look at children’s rightto water in India. They argue for the exercise of the right by childrenby analyzing the universal normative-legal framework and itsdifference to the local socio-culturally defined framework. Theysuggest that defining problems and designing actions only withinthe normative-legal framework can obscure understanding thecritical realities at the right-holders’ end. They suggest thatinterventions at various levels, such as through policy and targetedprogrammes, have at best provided an ‘enabling environment’,but the process of implementation of children’s rights at theright-holders’ end is to date an incomplete socio-cultural process.