IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbecrv/v35y2021i2p287-302..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religion and Sanitation Practices

Author

Listed:
  • Anjali Adukia
  • Marcella Alsan
  • Kim Babiarz
  • Jeremy D Goldhaber-Fiebert
  • Lea Prince

Abstract

In India, infant mortality among Hindus is higher than among Muslims, and religious differences in sanitation practices have been cited as a contributing factor. To explore whether religion itself is associated with differences in sanitation practices, this study compares sanitation practices of Hindus and Muslims living in the same locations using three nationally representative data sets from India. Across all three data sets, the unconditional religion-specific gap in latrine ownership and latrine use declines by approximately two-thirds when conditioning on location characteristics or including location fixed effects. Further, the estimates do not show evidence of religion-specific differences in other sanitation practices, such as handwashing or observed fecal material near homes. Household sanitation practices vary substantially across areas of India, but religion itself has less direct influence when considering differences between Hindus and Muslims within the same location.

Suggested Citation

  • Anjali Adukia & Marcella Alsan & Kim Babiarz & Jeremy D Goldhaber-Fiebert & Lea Prince, 2021. "Religion and Sanitation Practices," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 287-302.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:35:y:2021:i:2:p:287-302.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wber/lhz016
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anjali Adukia & Sam Asher & Paul Novosad, 2020. "Educational Investment Responses to Economic Opportunity: Evidence from Indian Road Construction," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 348-376, January.
    2. Arnold,Benjamin Ford & Briceno,Bertha & Colford Jr.,John M. & Gertler,Paul J. & Patil, Sumeet R. & Salvatore,Alicia Link, 2013. "A randomized, controlled study of a rural sanitation behavior change program in Madhya Pradesh, India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6702, The World Bank.
    3. Rajindar Sachar & Saiyid Hamid & T.K. Oommen & M.A. Basith & Rakesh Basant & Akhtar Majeed & Abusaleh Shariff, 2006. "Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India," Development Economics Working Papers 22136, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    4. Sonalde Desai & Gheda Temsah, 2014. "Muslim and Hindu Women’s Public and Private Behaviors: Gender, Family, and Communalized Politics in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2307-2332, December.
    5. Michael Geruso & Dean Spears, 2018. "Neighborhood Sanitation and Infant Mortality," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 125-162, April.
    6. Paul Gertler & Manisha Shah & Maria Laura Alzua & Lisa Cameron & Sebastian Martinez & Sumeet Patil, 2015. "How Does Health Promotion Work? Evidence From The Dirty Business of Eliminating Open Defecation," NBER Working Papers 20997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Mehtabul Azam & Vipul Bhatt, 2015. "Like Father, Like Son? Intergenerational Educational Mobility in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(6), pages 1929-1959, December.
    8. Seema Jayachandran & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2600-2629, September.
    9. Anjali Adukia, 2017. "Sanitation and Education," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 23-59, April.
    10. Bhalotra, Sonia & Soest, Arthur van, 2008. "Birth-spacing, fertility and neonatal mortality in India: Dynamics, frailty, and fecundity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 274-290, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Revilla, Ma. Laarni D. & Qu, Fangqi & Seetharam, K E & Rao, Bhanoji, 2021. "“Sanitation” in the Top Development Journals: A Review," ADBI Working Papers 1253, Asian Development Bank Institute.

    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. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    2. Saraswat, Deepak, 2024. "Gender composition of children and sanitation behavior in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Hossain, Md Amzad & Mahajan, Kanika & Sekhri, Sheetal, 2022. "Access to toilets and violence against women," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    4. Deepak Saraswat, 2018. "Gender Composition of Children and Sanitation Behavior In India," Working papers 2018-12, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    5. Spears, Dean, 2020. "Exposure to open defecation can account for the Indian enigma of child height," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    6. Evan Plous Kresch & Molly Lipscomb & Laura Schechter, 2020. "Externalities and Spillovers from Sanitation and Waste Management in Urban and Rural Neighborhoods," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3), pages 395-420, September.
    7. Dasgupta, Aparajita & Majid, Farhan & Orman, Wafa Hakim, 2023. "The nutritional cost of beef bans in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    8. Brown, Caitlin & Calvi, Rossella & Penglase, Jacob, 2021. "Sharing the pie: An analysis of undernutrition and individual consumption in Bangladesh," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    9. S Anukriti & Sonia Bhalotra & Eddy H F Tam, 2022. "On the Quantity and Quality of Girls: Fertility, Parental Investments and Mortality," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(641), pages 1-36.
    10. Abhishek Dureja & Digvijay S. Negi, 2024. "Birth Order Effects in Maternal Health-Seeking Behavior: Evidence from India," Working Papers 118, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    11. Orgill-Meyer, Jennifer & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2020. "Improved sanitation increases long-term cognitive test scores," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. Emran, M. Shahe & Jiang, Hanchen & Shilpi, Forhad, 2020. "Gender Bias and Intergenerational Educational Mobility: Theory and Evidence from China and India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 497, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Hammer, Jeffrey & Spears, Dean, 2016. "Village sanitation and child health: Effects and external validity in a randomized field experiment in rural India," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 135-148.
    14. Emran, M. Shahe & Jiang, Hanchen & Shilpi, Forhad, 2021. "Is Gender Destiny? Gender Bias and Intergenerational Educational Mobility in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 807, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    15. Augsburg, Britta & Bancalari, Antonella & Durrani, Zara & Vaidyanathan, Madhav & White, Zach, 2022. "When nature calls back: Sustaining behavioral change in rural Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. Michael Geruso & Dean Spears, 2018. "Neighborhood Sanitation and Infant Mortality," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 125-162, April.
    17. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2021. "Religion and abortion: The role of politician identity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    18. Menon, Nidhiya & McQueeney, Kathleen, 2020. "Christianity and girl child health in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    19. Naveen Kumar & Vinitha Varghese, 2022. "Elementary education in India versus China: Guidelines for NEP implementation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-64, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry & Maha Khan & Azka Sarosh Mir, 2021. "Son‐biased fertility stopping, birth spacing, and child nutritional status in Pakistan," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 712-736, May.

    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:oup:wbecrv:v:35:y:2021:i:2:p:287-302.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.html .

    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.