Water is a natural resource indispensable for women, men and children to leadhealthy lives with dignity. Access to water has found recognition as a humanrights standard by being implied within various international treaties, declarationsand other instruments. In 2002, it was acknowledged as an inextricable aspect of Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights. Access to adequate sanitation is likewise considered indispensable for leading a life with dignity. Subsequently, it has been treated as a right alongside water, potentially as a twinned right.

Recognition of access to water and sanitation as a human right is often seenas important because it clarifies the role of States in improving access to basicservices or supply, sets standards that can be monitored and prioritises those currently without access, particularly the vulnerable and marginalised, in anon-discriminatory manner. Consequently, significant focus has remained onthe machinery and mechanisms for implementing the right. Perhaps animportant assumption is that, once action for implementing the right is undertaken, access to water and sanitation and hence realisation of the rightwill be progressively achieved. However, do actions taken to implement the right necessarily lead to its realisation? Can a duty bearer guarantee exercise of the right by rights holders solely because essential legal frameworks have beencreated and actions within their scope undertaken?

Similar questions have been raised elsewhere. For instance, some have argued that a human rights-based approach brings a focus to community power relations, a factor that can otherwise impinge on effective access to resources by more marginalised groups. From an anthropological perspective, it has been argued that the practice of human rights takes place between different global and local understandings and meanings of humanness and rights. One sociology of law perspective contends that law, including international legal and political agreements, often obtains content only when first implemented. Therefore implementation should be investigated atthe local level.

It has also been argued that the human right to water is not enjoyed automatically by rights holders solely because relevant policies and laws havebeen created, institutional frameworks laid down, or appropriate programmesand interventions implemented. It is important to consider the ‘context’ in which these actions unfold, which primarily deal with water resources management and water governance questions.

Drawing upon such arguments, and looking at the realities on the groundin regard to the realisation of the right to water and sanitation in India, in particular, this chapter seeks to explore the processes lying at the interface between the community where rights holders lead their lives and the State that implements actions in accordance with the legal formulation of the right.