IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v53y2017i11p1915-1928.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Subjected to Sanitation: Caste Relations and Sanitation Adoption in Rural Tamil Nadu

Author

Listed:
  • Kathleen O’Reilly
  • Richa Dhanju
  • Elizabeth Louis

Abstract

If solving the global sanitation crisis lies within Indian borders, then it is important to understand the influence of caste relations on sanitation building and usage. Our ethnography investigated three villages in rural Tamil Nadu where seven separate sanitation interventions had failed. The analysis indicates caste relations played a key role in the failed interventions by creating and reinforcing the means by which caste groups distinguished themselves from each other at the village scale. Issues of cleaning, access to subsidies, latrine design, and purity served to facilitate and limit the processes that enable the everyday, unequal relationships of caste.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathleen O’Reilly & Richa Dhanju & Elizabeth Louis, 2017. "Subjected to Sanitation: Caste Relations and Sanitation Adoption in Rural Tamil Nadu," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1915-1928, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:53:y:2017:i:11:p:1915-1928
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2016.1241385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2016.1241385
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2016.1241385?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kruks-Wisner, Gabrielle, 2011. "Seeking the Local State: Gender, Caste, and the Pursuit of Public Services in Post-Tsunami India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1143-1154, July.
    2. Craig Jeffrey, 2002. "Caste, Class, and Clientelism: A Political Economy of Everyday Corruption in Rural North India," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(1), pages 21-41, January.
    3. Sahoo, Krushna Chandra & Hulland, Kristyna R.S. & Caruso, Bethany A. & Swain, Rojalin & Freeman, Matthew C. & Panigrahi, Pinaki & Dreibelbis, Robert, 2015. "Sanitation-related psychosocial stress: A grounded theory study of women across the life-course in Odisha, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 80-89.
    4. Sneha Lamba & Dean Spears, 2013. "Caste, 'Cleanliness' and Cash: Effects of Caste-Based Political Reservations in Rajasthan on a Sanitation Prize," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(11), pages 1592-1606, November.
    5. Colin McFarlane & Renu Desai & Steve Graham, 2014. "Informal Urban Sanitation: Everyday Life, Poverty, and Comparison," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 104(5), pages 989-1011, September.
    6. Nandita Singh & Per Wickenberg & Karsten Åström & Håkan Hydén, 2008. "Children's Right to Water as a Contested Domain: Gendered reflections from India," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 51(1), pages 102-107, March.
    7. Shakya, Holly B. & Christakis, Nicholas A. & Fowler, James H., 2015. "Social network predictors of latrine ownership," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 129-138.
    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. Saraswat, Deepak, 2024. "Gender composition of children and sanitation behavior in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Pakhtigian, Emily L. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2024. "Social setting, gender, and preferences for improved sanitation: Evidence from experimental games in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Biljana Macura & Laura Del Duca & Adriana Soto & Naomi Carrard & Louisa Gosling & Karin Hannes & James Thomas & Lewnida Sara & Marni Sommer & Hugh S. Waddington & Sarah Dickin, 2021. "PROTOCOL: What is the impact of complex WASH interventions on gender and social equality outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries? A mixed‐method systematic review protocol," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(2), June.

    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. Pakhtigian, Emily L. & Dickinson, Katherine L. & Orgill-Meyer, Jennifer & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2022. "Sustaining latrine use: Peers, policies, and sanitation behaviors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 223-242.
    2. 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.
    3. Abraham Marshall Nunbogu & Miriam Harter & Hans-Joachim Mosler, 2019. "Factors Associated with Levels of Latrine Completion and Consequent Latrine Use in Northern Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Gautam, Sanghmitra & Gechter, Michael & Guiteras, Raymond P. & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2024. "Encouraging Rural Sanitation Take-up: Insights from Experimental Evaluations of Interventions," CEnREP Working Papers 340057, North Carolina State University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    5. Desai, Raj M. & Olofsgård, Anders, 2019. "Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 33-52.
    6. Samuel Scott & Alejandra Arrieta & Neha Kumar & Purnima Menon & Agnes Quisumbing, 2020. "Multidimensional predictors of common mental disorders among Indian mothers of 6- to 24-month-old children living in disadvantaged rural villages with women’s self-help groups: A cross-sectional analy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Saraswat, Deepak, 2024. "Gender composition of children and sanitation behavior in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. María Laura Alzúa & Habiba Djebbari & Amy J. Pickering, 2020. "A Community-Based Program Promotes Sanitation," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 357-390.
    9. Job Wasonga & Kazuchiyo Miyamichi & Mami Hitachi & Rie Ozaki & Mohamed Karama & Kenji Hirayama & Satoshi Kaneko, 2023. "Effects of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Boosting and Household Factors on Latrine Ownership in Siaya County, Kenya," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(18), pages 1-12, September.
    10. Brewis, Alexandra & Choudhary, Neetu & Wutich, Amber, 2019. "Household water insecurity may influence common mental disorders directly and indirectly through multiple pathways: Evidence from Haiti," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    11. YuJung Julia Lee & Tiffany Radcliff, 2021. "Community interactions and sanitation use by the urban poor: Survey evidence from India’s slums," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 715-732, March.
    12. Krushna Chandra Sahoo & Shubhankar Dubey & Girish Chandra Dash & Rakesh Kumar Sahoo & Mili Roopchand Sahay & Sapna Negi & Pranab Mahapatra & Debdutta Bhattacharya & Banamber Sahoo & Subhada Prasad Pan, 2022. "A Systematic Review of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Urban Poor in Low- and Middle-Income Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic through a Gendered Lens," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    13. Augsburg, Britta & Caeyers, Bet & Giunti, Sara & Malde, Bansi & Smets, Susanna, 2023. "Labeled loans and human capital investments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    14. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.
    15. Anant Maringanti & Indivar Jonnalagadda, 2015. "Rent gap, fluid infrastructure and population excess in a gentrifying neighbourhood," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2-3), pages 365-374, June.
    16. Rhys Murrian & Paul A. Raschky & Klaus Ackermann, 2024. "Friends, Key Players and the Adoption and Use of Experience Goods," Monash Economics Working Papers 2024-17, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    17. Ray, Tridip & Roy Chaudhuri, Arka & Sahai, Komal, 2020. "Whose education matters? An analysis of inter caste marriages in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 619-633.
    18. Anindya Bhattacharya & Anirban Kar & Alita Nandi, 2016. "Local institutional structure and clientelistic access to employment: the case of MGNREGS in three states of India," Working papers 269, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    19. 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.
    20. Shakya, Holly B. & Christakis, Nicholas A. & Fowler, James H., 2015. "Social network predictors of latrine ownership," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 129-138.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:jdevst:v:53:y:2017:i:11:p:1915-1928. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.