Determination of appropriate service quality attributes for household toilets in rural settlements of India based on user perception

In many developing countries, including India, governments have implemented programs for improvement of environment and health in rural settlements through the provision of a subsidized household toilet with specifications selected and benchmarked from the experts’ perspective with only partial consideration of users’ perception. Provision of household toilets with specifications or service quality as perceived by users is a requirement for the sustainability and sustained use of toilet infrastructure. Users do not judge only the overall quality of a service but also base their judgment on a few attributes which are either perceived to be relatively more important or where there is a wider gap between expectation and perception . This paper presents a review of the service quality attributes of the household toilet as found in the relevant literature and provides a step-by-step approach for identifying appropriate attributes based on users’ perspective. While an initial list of attributes was developed based on literature review, initial selection and modifications of the attributes’ definition and units were carried out as per our judgment. This list was further modified through focus groups discussions and incorporating expert opinions. The final list of attributes is selected based on the stated importance level of attributes as perceived by users. The study finds that the attributes prioritized by the users are different from the experts. While government policies emphasize on the construction of toilet, maintenance of toilet is found an important issue for the users.