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Article

Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership

1
U.C. Berkeley, School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
2
Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(5), 734; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050734
Received: 15 January 2019 / Revised: 31 January 2019 / Accepted: 22 February 2019 / Published: 28 February 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Directions in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Research)
In 2017, the Joint Monitoring Programme estimated that 520 million people in India were defecating in the open every day. This is despite efforts made by the government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and multilaterals to improve latrine coverage throughout India. We hypothesize that this might be because current interventions focus mostly on individual-level determinants, such as attitudes and beliefs, instead of considering all possible social determinants of latrine ownership. Given this, we ask two questions: what is the association between the amount of dwelling space owned by households in rural India and their likelihood of toilet ownership and what proportion of the variation in household latrine ownership is attributable to villages and states? We used multilevel modeling and found significant associations between the amount of household dwelling space and the likelihood of latrine ownership. Furthermore, considerable variation in latrine ownership is attributable to villages and states, suggesting that additional research is required to elucidate the contextual effects of villages and states on household latrine ownership. Thus, sanitation interventions should consider household dwelling space and village and state context as important social determinants of latrine ownership in rural India. Doing so could bolster progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. View Full-Text
Keywords: sanitation; social determinants; India; environmental health; sustainable development goals sanitation; social determinants; India; environmental health; sustainable development goals
MDPI and ACS Style

Jain, A.; Fernald, L.C.H.; Smith, K.R.; Subramanian, S.V. Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 734. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050734

AMA Style

Jain A, Fernald LCH, Smith KR, Subramanian SV. Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(5):734. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050734

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jain, Anoop, Lia C.H. Fernald, Kirk R. Smith, and S.V. Subramanian. 2019. "Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 5: 734. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050734

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