Blog

This week I’m in Sitapur, and it’s nice to be back after a long time.   I learn so much here.  Today, I was having a conversation about rural sanitation with Baby, a woman who long-time readers of our blog will...Read More..

A shorter version of the squat working paper 1 was just published by the EPW. Check it out on the EPW website! The paper will be available for free download starting tomorrow, but we are linking a copy for you! Don’t miss it. See ithere....Read More..

These days, we end up posting useful articles on twitter and facebook first, and on the blog later. There has been a flurry of articles in the media recently on sanitation and toilets in India. In this blogpost, we curate the best of them...Read More..

  The paper, available here, mirrors several of our findings. It says, Even after constructing toilets, planting trees, and cleaning the village, it was not easy to convince some people to use their toilets. Though there were enough toilets, some...Read More..

Now, I don't really like to talk too much about toilets because it takes away from the conversation on latrine use, but Aashish and I just did some math on missing toilets, and the statistics are pretty stark. For the...Read More..

The above is a snip out of the new draft action plan for the Swachh Bharat Mission. I am very concerned that the emphasis of the new plan will be on latrine construction -- especially in practice, whatever comprehensive list...Read More..

  Today's must-read is Varad Pande's blog on IBN live: Much has been said about the recent priority placed on sanitation, with the Prime Minister taking up the issue most recently from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence...Read More..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgTImOWTxJ4 Check out this public service announcement, called “Ending open defecation is in our hands,” made by WASH United. It calls upon us all to join in and help: “India is ready for another epic achievement - ending open defecation...It...Read More..

  Ideas for India and Live Mint are publishing a series on sanitation and r.i.c.e. work. You can see Diane's piece on the conclusions from the SQUAT and qualitative "switching" study about why so many people in India defecate in...Read More..

The Prime Minister yesterday gave his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort, and brought up sanitation as an important issue for the next 4 years! He says, I, therefore, have to launch a "Clean India" campaign from 2nd October...Read More..

The government of India over the years has focused on latrine construction and its spending on behavioral change in the form of Information and Educations Campaigns (IEC) has been minuscule. Infact, the IEC spending between financial year 2013-14 were just...Read More..

We often think that education in general, and educating people on how bacteria spread, will get people to use their latrines. In the graph above, we are able to see latrine use by sex and level of education for people...Read More..

Bloomberg News came out with a story yesterday on how government latrines are often not used in rural north India because people are often disgusted by them. The journalist quotes Yamini Aiyar, of Accountability Initiative, saying: Targets for construction of...Read More..

From the SQUAT Survey, we found that many people prefer open defecation to latrine use, and that latrines are often seen as dirty and unpleasant. Through our conversations with people in rural India, it seems that part of this distaste...Read More..

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The SQUAT Survey teams randomly selected and interviewed around 3,200 rural households in over 300 villages in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Figure 1 We asked people if their religious leaders have ever told them where they...Read More..