Blog

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..

  To continue the trajectory of chart month, I’d like to share some of the data that we collected in the SQUAT Survey on latrine ownership and usage among different religious groups. The SQUAT Survey teams randomly selected and interviewed...Read More..

I recently picked up V.S. Naipaul’s book An Area of Darkness, a chronicle of his first trip to India published in 1964. Although some view the book as overly pessimistic and scathing, his portrayal of India’s culture of open defecation...Read More..

Just 12 days after the order to states to construct over 5 million toilets by the end of August, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation issued another order, addressing the need to “sensitize the rural population on sanitation,” by...Read More..

Today at 3pm, in a presentation called "Culture and the health transition: the case of sanitation in rural north India" Diane will be presenting findings from the Switching Study, a qualitative companion study to the SQUAT survey, at the IGC-ISI...Read More..