Open Defecation and Poor Sanitation Condition a Serious Menace to Human Health and Dignity: A Micro Level Analysis of Indian Villages (original) (raw)
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Open Defecation in India: An Assessment of Swachh Bharat Mission 2015-16 to 2019-21
Economic & Political Weekly, 2023
Universal access to safe sanitation by reducing subnational inequality is a huge challenge for a country like India. The union government launched the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014, intending to end the practice of open defecation by 2019. The article examines the current state and temporal changes in OD across subnational levels using data from the National Family Health Surveys 4 (2015-16) and 5 (2019-21). While the practice has decreased signifi cantly, from 38.88% of households in 2015-16 to 19.36% in 2019-21, it remains relatively higher in central and eastern Indian states. The fi ndings suggest further modifi cation of the SBM project's implementation strategies in these states.
Community-Based Approaches to Tackle Open Defecation in Rural India: Theory, Evidence and Policies
Open defecation (OD), an age-old practice in India, impacts the health of individuals as well as their communities. To tackle the problem, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2014, aimed at making the country open-defecation free (ODF) by October 2019 by giving more attention to community-based approaches. However, while such approaches have helped solve the sanitation riddle in many countries, curbing OD in India is much more complicated: the root of the problem is a combination of lack of sanitation infrastructure and deep-seated habits. So far, India's sanitation policies have used the top-down approach, focusing on financial assistance for latrine construction. While this is necessary, considering the social determinants at play, the emphasis must be on changing collective behaviour through participatory methods, a component that has been largely absent from past policies on sanitation. Demand-driven approaches must be adopted, keeping in mind their strengths and weaknesses and ensuring equity-focused actions through community-monitored, locally appropriate and culturally sensitive interventions.
Barriers in Implementation of Sanitation Projects: A Case Study of Open Defecation Free (ODF) India
Journal of Development Economics and Management Research Studies, 2021
Despite strong emphasis of government to make India open Defecation free by 2019, open defecation is widespread in India. It is equally widespread in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is known that good health has strong impact on the overall productivity of an individual. It is also known that good sanitation and hygiene conditions are prere of good health. People are not willing to change their habits and behaviour for healthy sanitation practices. Despite repeated efforts of government to change the behaviour of people regarding construction and use of toilet, people are not changing their habits. Our report presents evidence from the survey data collected from the rural households of Suriyawan block from Bhikarirampur village of Bhadohi district of Uttar Pradesh. More than 70 percent of people we interviewed, told that they do not have enough money for constructing toilet because more than 75 percent of the people think that constructing a toilet requires anything between INR 20,000-30,000. They do not have the idea about the low cost toilets, which they could have easily afforded and used. Also there is a wide spread belief among people that the low cost twin-pits toilets constructed by the government are of inferior quality. Families having working toilet inside home also had at least one member who defecates out in the open. We found that there are many false beliefs among people about open defecation. They possess the mind-set that open defecation improves their health as they get fresh air and defecate in the open in an open space. Females believe that using household toilet causes headache and sickness. Many believe that household toilets require more water, therefore it's better to defecate in the open. Male members considered household toilet are for only females. Another important finding was lot of people do not want to construct a toilet because they think maintenance and cleanliness of the latrine is a big headache. These findings 1 We would like to thank the management and faculty members of Xavier School of Rural Management, Bhubaneshwar, particularly Prof T Kumar, as well as Fundamental Action and Research Foundation, particularly Mr Ramdutt Mishra, Mr Rishi Raj Mishra and family of Bhikarirampur, UP, for facilitating our field visit.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2014
This study identifies 11 issues that have inhibited the spread of a comprehensive sanitation programme. It emphasises the complexity of issues and helps avoid the facile targeting of the poor as deficient citizens, whose latrine practices are viewed as a "primitive" source of social disorder and disease. Recognition that many factors are involved and interrelated might also serve as a warning against patchwork policies that disregard local context in their haste to proclaim another district an "open defecation free zone".
Changes in Open Defecation in Rural North India: 2014-2018
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019
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The Puzzle Of Open Defecation In India: A Different Perspective
This article discuss the Open defecation is one of the main reasons, why the infant of rural India are more likely to die and stunted. It is not only adversely affect the children health but also going to affect the human capital in recent future in terms of low productivity, and which lead to "vicious circle of poverty" through market failure. It is again a prestige issue for more particularly women. Most of the times during going to relax in the morning or evening, women are more likely to be sexually assaulted as compared to their counterpart male. Thus more precisely open defecation is adversely affecting the Health, Wealth and Dignity of the nation. Hence, it is demonstrated that the high open defecation is not the by-product of the high poverty rate, lack of education, lack of water, lack of access to toilet and poor governance; rather it is a direct consequence of the social exclusion on the line of caste. Therefore for the solution of the open defecation, the researchers and policymaker should focus more on caste puzzle than other factors
The World Health Organization has identified open defecation as a public health problem, with 620 million people practicing it worldwide. Latrines are not just an issue of sanitation or hygiene, but also related to privacy, dignity and equity. Despite existing sanitation programmes in India, open defecation continues and several constructed toilets remain unused. This study explored the reasons for the same. The decision towards submission towards this conference was made based on its scope to include multi-disciplinary papers on water and sanitation and behavioural change. Method: A qualitative design was used for this exploratory study based in Bhawal village, Mandla District, Madhya Pradesh. Fifteen interviews (six men, four women, one senior citizen, two children, one block officer and one district coordinator) and four focus group discussions (one each with youth, village health and sanitation committee, self-help group and local activists) were conducted using discussion guides. The interviews and discussions were audio recorded and transcribed. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data was done using MS Word and NVivo. Results: The main issues identified were the lack of awareness about the health impacts of open defecation, preference for open environment, water scarcity, lack of interest towards sanitation by local self government, poor fund management, non-availability of construction materials, poverty, corruption, poor construction quality and poor monitoring of sanitation programme. Conclusions and Recommendations: Efforts in 2009 under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to improve sanitation were focused towards construction of toilets but not towards empowering the community to adopt toilets. Also, poor implementation of sanitation programme is comparable with similar status of other governmental services, such as the health system. In addition, cultural factors played a role (Bhawal is a Gond tribal village). Several experiences from across the world have shown that construction of toilets alone is inadequate to prevent open defecation. There is a need for concomitant strengthening of local water management and behavioural change through community led approaches keeping rights and responsibilities in mind.
Open Defecation: Awareness & Practices of Rural Districts of Tamil Nadu, India
International Journal of Scientific Research, 2012
In the most developing countries the open defecation is the 'way of life'. The habit of open defecation is inseparably integrated in the day to day life of the people especially in the rural areas and urban slums of India. The practice is considered as most serious health and environmental hazard. (WHO Fact Sheet, 2014).It is harder to bend the iron mind of people with regard to open defecation, which they feel that they practice over many generations. This paper is an attempt to bring out the awareness level and practices of 1800 randomly selected households from 60 panchyaths of Namakkal, Perambalur and Pudukkottai Districts of Tamil Nadu on open defecation. The study revealed that open defecation and its attendant medical problems were rampant in the community with nobody even bothering to do anything to overcome it. While open defecation was in practice, many women specially mothers (98%) did not know how to dispose of their children's feaces safely.