Analyzing changes in types of household sanitation among 543 Parliamentary Constituencies between 2016 and 2021 in India

In India, the share of households with access to an improved private toilet has increased considerably over the past few decades. However, there are other types of toilets that households often rely on, such as unimproved toilets or shared toilets. And in many cases, households in India still do not have a toilet. This paper provides sub-national prevalence estimates for each of these toilet types across India’s 543 Parliamentary Constituencies (PCs) in 2016 and 2021 and highlights the PCs where the prevalence either increased or decreased. We used a Monte Carlo Markov Chain procedure to derive these estimates. Overall, we found considerable variation between PCs for each of the four toilet types. We also found that in the majority of PCs, the share of no-toilet households decreased by more than 9.99 percentage points between 2016 and 2021, while the share of improved private toilets increased by more than 9.99 percentage points over the same period. The PC-level prevalence of unimproved and shared toilets was similar in 2016 and 2021. Lessons from high-performing PCs should be studied and applied to PCs where the prevalence of no-toilet households remains high. Furthermore, PCs where the share of unimproved toilets remains high should implement policies to help households transition to improved toilets. This is especially important in mountainous areas. In areas where households rely on shared toilets, such as dense urban settlements, policy makers should implement strategies for ensuring these facilities are kept clean and well-maintained.