IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v188y2017icp41-50.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Switching to sanitation: Understanding latrine adoption in a representative panel of rural Indian households

Author

Listed:
  • Coffey, Diane
  • Spears, Dean
  • Vyas, Sangita

Abstract

Open defecation, which is still practiced by about a billion people worldwide, is one of the most compelling examples of how place influences health in developing countries. Efforts by governments and development organizations to address the world's remaining open defecation would be greatly supported by a better understanding of why some people adopt latrines and others do not. We analyze the 2005 and 2012 rounds of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), a nationally representative panel of households in India, the country which is home to 60% of the people worldwide who defecate in the open. Among rural households that defecated in the open in 2005, we investigate what baseline properties and what changes over time are associated with switching to latrine use between 2005 and 2012. We find that households that are richer or better educated, that have certain demographic properties, or that improved their homes over this period were more likely to switch to using a latrine or toilet. However, each of these effect sizes is small; overall switching to latrine use from open defecation is low; and no ready household-level mechanisms are available for sanitation programs to widely influence these factors. Our research adds to a growing consensus in the literature that the social context should not be overlooked when trying to understand and bring about change in sanitation behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Coffey, Diane & Spears, Dean & Vyas, Sangita, 2017. "Switching to sanitation: Understanding latrine adoption in a representative panel of rural Indian households," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 41-50.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:188:y:2017:i:c:p:41-50
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.07.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617304239
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.07.001?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. Shireen J. Jejeebhoy & Zeba A. Sathar, 2001. "Women's Autonomy in India and Pakistan: The Influence of Religion and Region," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 687-712, December.
    2. 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.
    3. repec:pri:cheawb:case_economic_development_abcde.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Jenkins, Marion W. & Curtis, Val, 2005. "Achieving the 'good life': Why some people want latrines in rural Benin," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(11), pages 2446-2459, December.
    5. Aboud, Frances E. & Singla, Daisy R., 2012. "Challenges to changing health behaviours in developing countries: A critical overview," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 589-594.
    6. Jenkins, Marion W. & Scott, Beth, 2007. "Behavioral indicators of household decision-making and demand for sanitation and potential gains from social marketing in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(12), pages 2427-2442, June.
    7. 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.
    8. David Cutler & Grant Miller, 2005. "The role of public health improvements in health advances: The twentieth-century United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-22, February.
    9. Waterkeyn, Juliet & Cairncross, Sandy, 2005. "Creating demand for sanitation and hygiene through Community Health Clubs: A cost-effective intervention in two districts in Zimbabwe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1958-1970, November.
    10. Rheinländer, Thilde & Samuelsen, Helle & Dalsgaard, Anders & Konradsen, Flemming, 2010. "Hygiene and sanitation among ethnic minorities in Northern Vietnam: Does government promotion match community priorities?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 994-1001, September.
    11. Anne Case, 2001. "Health, Income and Economic Development," Working Papers 207, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    12. repec:pri:cheawb:case_economic_development_abcde is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Evans, W.D. & Pattanayak, S.K. & Young, S. & Buszin, J. & Rai, S. & Bihm, Jasmine Wallace, 2014. "Social marketing of water and sanitation products: A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 18-25.
    14. Payal Hathi & Sabrina Haque & Lovey Pant & Diane Coffey & Dean Spears, 2017. "Place and Child Health: The Interaction of Population Density and Sanitation in Developing Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(1), pages 337-360, February.
    15. Santos, Andreia C. & Roberts, Jennifer A. & Barreto, Mauricio L. & Cairncross, Sandy, 2011. "Demand for sanitation in Salvador, Brazil: A hybrid choice approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(8), pages 1325-1332, April.
    16. Spears, Dean, 2013. "Policy Lessons from the Implementation of India’s Total Sanitation Campaign," India Policy Forum, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 9(1), pages 63-104.
    17. Spears, Dean & Haddad, Lawrence James, 2015. "The power of WASH: Why sanitation matters for nutrition," IFPRI book chapters, in: 2014–2015 Global Food Policy Report, chapter 3, pages 19-24, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_economic_development_abcde is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Bisung, Elijah & Elliott, Susan J. & Schuster-Wallace, Corinne J. & Karanja, Diana M. & Bernard, Abudho, 2014. "Social capital, collective action and access to water in rural Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 147-154.
    20. Nandi, Arindam & Megiddo, Itamar & Ashok, Ashvin & Verma, Amit & Laxminarayan, Ramanan, 2017. "Reduced burden of childhood diarrheal diseases through increased access to water and sanitation in India: A modeling analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 181-192.
    21. Bisung, Elijah & Elliott, Susan J., 2014. "Toward a social capital based framework for understanding the water-health nexus," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 194-200.
    22. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_economic_development_abcde.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Derek Headey & Giordano Palloni, 2019. "Water, Sanitation, and Child Health: Evidence From Subnational Panel Data in 59 Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 729-752, April.
    2. 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.
    3. Pritha Chatterjee & Rockli Kim & Akshay Swaminathan & Rakesh Kumar & S.V. Subramanian, 2019. "From Administrative to Political Evaluation: Estimating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Indicators for Parliamentary Constituencies in India," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 4(2), pages 188-212, July.
    4. Renee De Shay & Dawn L. Comeau & Gloria D. Sclar & Parimita Routray & Bethany A. Caruso, 2020. "Community Perceptions of a Multilevel Sanitation Behavior Change Intervention in Rural Odisha, India," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-16, June.
    5. 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.
    6. Basilua Andre Muzembo & Kei Kitahara & Anusuya Debnath & Ayumu Ohno & Keinosuke Okamoto & Shin-Ichi Miyoshi, 2022. "Cholera Outbreaks in India, 2011–2020: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-27, May.
    7. Artwell Kanda & Esper Jacobeth Ncube & Kuku Voyi, 2021. "Adapting Sanitation Needs to a Latrine Design (and Its Upgradable Models): A Mixed Method Study under Lower Middle-Income Rural Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Page, Abigail E. & Minter, Tessa & Viguier, Sylvain & Migliano, Andrea Bamberg, 2018. "Hunter-gatherer health and development policy: How the promotion of sedentism worsens the Agta's health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 39-48.
    9. Anna Lunn, 2020. "Urban family ties and household latrines in rural India: A cross-sectional analysis of national data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, July.
    10. Sania Ashraf & Cristina Bicchieri & Upasak Das. Alex Shpenev, 2023. "Valuing Open Defecation Free Surroundings: Experimental Evidence from a Norm-Based Intervention in India," Papers 2312.16205, arXiv.org.
    11. Lipscomb, Molly & Schechter, Laura, 2018. "Subsidies versus mental accounting nudges: Harnessing mobile payment systems to improve sanitation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 235-254.

    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. 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.
    2. Barrington, D.J. & Sridharan, S. & Saunders, S.G. & Souter, R.T. & Bartram, J. & Shields, K.F. & Meo, S. & Kearton, A. & Hughes, R.K., 2016. "Improving community health through marketing exchanges: A participatory action research study on water, sanitation, and hygiene in three Melanesian countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 84-93.
    3. Emmy De Buck & Hans Van Remoortel & Karin Hannes & Thashlin Govender & Selvan Naidoo & Bert Avau & Axel Vande Veegaete & Alfred Musekiwa & Vittoria Lutje & Margaret Cargo & Hans‐Joachim Mosler & Phili, 2017. "Approaches to promote handwashing and sanitation behaviour change in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a mixed method systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-447.
    4. Mohammad Rashid & Debapratim Pandit, 2017. "Determination of appropriate service quality attributes for household toilets in rural settlements of India based on user perception," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1381-1406, August.
    5. O'Reilly, Kathleen & Dhanju, Richa & Goel, Abhineety, 2017. "Exploring “The Remote” and “The Rural”: Open Defecation and Latrine Use in Uttarakhand, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 193-205.
    6. Spears, Dean, 2020. "Exposure to open defecation can account for the Indian enigma of child height," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Derek Headey & Giordano Palloni, 2019. "Water, Sanitation, and Child Health: Evidence From Subnational Panel Data in 59 Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 729-752, April.
    8. Parimita Routray & Belen Torondel & Thomas Clasen & Wolf-Peter Schmidt, 2017. "Women's role in sanitation decision making in rural coastal Odisha, India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, May.
    9. Crocker, Jonny & Shields, Katherine F. & Venkataramanan, Vidya & Saywell, Darren & Bartram, Jamie, 2016. "Building capacity for water, sanitation, and hygiene programming: Training evaluation theory applied to CLTS management training in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 66-76.
    10. 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.
    11. Ross, Ian & Cumming, Oliver & Dreibelbis, Robert & Adriano, Zaida & Nala, Rassul & Greco, Giulia, 2021. "How does sanitation influence people's quality of life? Qualitative research in low-income areas of Maputo, Mozambique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    12. Hugh Sharma Waddington & Sandy Cairncross, 2021. "PROTOCOL: Water, sanitation and hygiene for reducing childhood mortality in low‐ and middle‐income countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), March.
    13. 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.
    14. Langford, Rebecca & Panter-Brick, Catherine, 2013. "A health equity critique of social marketing: Where interventions have impact but insufficient reach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 133-141.
    15. McMichael, Celia & Robinson, Priscilla, 2016. "Drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour change: A case study from mid-western Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 28-36.
    16. Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren, 2018. "Explaining declines in US rural mortality, 1910–1933: The role of county health departments," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 42-72.
    17. Daniel Gallardo‐Albarrán, 2020. "Sanitary infrastructures and the decline of mortality in Germany, 1877–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 730-757, August.
    18. Bardosh, Kevin & Inthavong, Phouth & Xayaheuang, Sivilai & Okello, Anna L., 2014. "Controlling parasites, understanding practices: The biosocial complexity of a One Health intervention for neglected zoonotic helminths in northern Lao PDR," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 215-223.
    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. Anurag N. Banerjee & Nilanjan Banik & Ashvika Dalmia, 2017. "Demand for household sanitation in India using NFHS-3 data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 307-327, 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:eee:socmed:v:188:y:2017:i:c:p:41-50. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.