IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i5p734-d209951.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership

Author

Listed:
  • Anoop Jain

    (U.C. Berkeley, School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • Lia C.H. Fernald

    (U.C. Berkeley, School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • Kirk R. Smith

    (U.C. Berkeley, School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • S.V. Subramanian

    (Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA)

Abstract

In 2017, the Joint Monitoring Programme estimated that 520 million people in India were defecating in the open every day. This is despite efforts made by the government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and multilaterals to improve latrine coverage throughout India. We hypothesize that this might be because current interventions focus mostly on individual-level determinants, such as attitudes and beliefs, instead of considering all possible social determinants of latrine ownership. Given this, we ask two questions: what is the association between the amount of dwelling space owned by households in rural India and their likelihood of toilet ownership and what proportion of the variation in household latrine ownership is attributable to villages and states? We used multilevel modeling and found significant associations between the amount of household dwelling space and the likelihood of latrine ownership. Furthermore, considerable variation in latrine ownership is attributable to villages and states, suggesting that additional research is required to elucidate the contextual effects of villages and states on household latrine ownership. Thus, sanitation interventions should consider household dwelling space and village and state context as important social determinants of latrine ownership in rural India. Doing so could bolster progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.

Suggested Citation

  • Anoop Jain & Lia C.H. Fernald & Kirk R. Smith & S.V. Subramanian, 2019. "Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-14, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:734-:d:209951
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/734/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/734/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Rockli & Mohanty, Sanjay K. & Subramanian, S.V., 2016. "Multilevel Geographies of Poverty in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 349-359.
    2. Saravanan Veluswami Subramanian & Min Jung Cho & Fotima Mukhitdinova, 2018. "Health Risk in Urbanizing Regions: Examining the Nexus of Infrastructure, Hygiene and Health in Tashkent Province, Uzbekistan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, November.
    3. Shakya, H.B. & Christakis, N.A. & Fowler, J.H., 2014. "Association between social network communities and health behavior: An observational sociocentric network study of latrine ownership in rural india," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(5), pages 930-937.
    4. W. J. Browne & S. V. Subramanian & K. Jones & H. Goldstein, 2005. "Variance partitioning in multilevel logistic models that exhibit overdispersion," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(3), pages 599-613, July.
    5. Alkire, Sabina & Seth, Suman, 2015. "Multidimensional Poverty Reduction in India between 1999 and 2006: Where and How?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 93-108.
    6. Davis, Jennifer, 2004. "Corruption in Public Service Delivery: Experience from South Asia's Water and Sanitation Sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 53-71, January.
    7. Tess Shiras & Oliver Cumming & Joe Brown & Becelar Muneme & Rassul Nala & Robert Dreibelbis, 2018. "Shared Sanitation Management and the Role of Social Capital: Findings from an Urban Sanitation Intervention in Maputo, Mozambique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-13, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sanjay K. Mohanty & Guru Vasishtha, 2021. "Contextualizing multidimensional poverty in urban India," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(3), pages 234-253, September.
    2. Kim, Rockli & Mohanty, Sanjay K. & Subramanian, S.V., 2016. "Multilevel Geographies of Poverty in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 349-359.
    3. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya & Ha Vu, 2020. "Targeting Administrative Regions for Multidimensional Poverty Alleviation: A Study on Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 143-189, July.
    4. Venkataramanan, R. & Kumar, Abhishek & Mantena, Sreekar & Subramanian, S.V., 2021. "Geographical variation in mobile phone ownership and SMS literacy among women (age 15–49) in India: A cross-sectional analysis based on National Family Health Survey-4," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Gabriele B. Durrant & Sylke V. Schnepf, 2018. "Which schools and pupils respond to educational achievement surveys?: a focus on the English Programme for International Student Assessment sample," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 181(4), pages 1057-1075, October.
    6. Elias Giannakis & Sophia Efstratoglou & Artemis Antoniades, 2018. "Off-Farm Employment and Economic Crisis: Evidence from Cyprus," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-11, March.
    7. Pinaki Das & Bibek Paria & Shama Firdaush, 2021. "Juxtaposing Consumption Poverty and Multidimensional Poverty: A Study in Indian Context," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 469-501, January.
    8. Sugata Bag & Suman Seth, 2016. "Understanding Standard of Living and Correlates in Slums - An Analysis Using Monetary Versus Multidimensional Approaches in Three Indian Cities," Working papers 263, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    9. Alkire, Sabina & Roche, José Manuel & Vaz, Ana, 2017. "Changes Over Time in Multidimensional Poverty: Methodology and Results for 34 Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 232-249.
    10. Alkire, Sabina & Santos, Maria Emma, 2014. "Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 251-274.
    11. Céline Nauges & Dale Whittington, 2019. "Social Norms Information Treatments in the Municipal Water Supply Sector: Some New Insights on Benefits and Costs," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-40, July.
    12. Kelvyn Jones & David Manley & Ron Johnston & Dewi Owen, 2018. "Modelling residential segregation as unevenness and clustering: A multilevel modelling approach incorporating spatial dependence and tackling the MAUP," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 45(6), pages 1122-1141, November.
    13. Wei Zou & Xiaopei Cheng & Zengzeng Fan & Wenxi Yin, 2023. "Multidimensional Relative Poverty in China: Identification and Decomposition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-27, March.
    14. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Straub, Stéphane & Flochel, Thomas, 2016. "Public Procurement and Rent-Seeking: The Case of Paraguay," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 395-407.
    15. Sabina Alkire & Suman Seth, 2015. "Identifying destitution through linked subsets of multidimensionally poor: An ordinal approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-151, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Tabish Nawab & Saqlain Raza & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Ghulam Yahya Khan & Sana Bashir, 2023. "Multidimensional poverty index across districts in Punjab, Pakistan: estimation and rationale to consolidate with SDGs," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1301-1325, February.
    17. Fernanda Odilla, 2020. "Oversee and Punish: Understanding the Fight Against Corruption Involving Government Workers in Brazil," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 140-152.
    18. Charles Kenny, 2009. "Measuring Corruption in Infrastructure: Evidence from Transition and Developing Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 314-332.
    19. Mitsunori Odagiri & Zainal Muhammad & Aidan A. Cronin & Michael E. Gnilo & Aldy K. Mardikanto & Khaerul Umam & Yameha T. Asamou, 2017. "Enabling Factors for Sustaining Open Defecation-Free Communities in Rural Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, December.
    20. Maty Konte, 2021. "How do education resources respond to the quality of local governance in Africa?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1538-1557, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:734-:d:209951. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.