x

The CLTS Knowledge Hub has changed to The Sanitation Learning Hub and we have a new website https://sanitationlearninghub.org/. Please visit us here - it would be great to stay in contact.

The CLTS Knowledge Hub website is no longer being updated you can access timely, relevant and action-orientated sanitation and hygiene resources and information at the new site.

Diane Coffey

CLTS in rural north India

India is the country with the biggest open defecation problem in the world.  In India, open defecation is practiced by more than half of households and by about 67% percent of rural households.  In fact, 60 percent of people anywhere who defecate in the open live in India.  This widespread lack of sanitation, combined with India’s high population density, poses important health threats for children. 

My hang up

my hang up
When we started the switching study – a qualitative research project on latrine adoption in 4 regions of South Asia – I was pretty nervous. Sangita’s already told you about our lifestyle in the field—lots of people on one floor, cold baths and long lines for the bathroom in the morning. Though I must say having our own cook is pretty posh compared to other data collection projects I’ve worked on. But the thing I was most concerned about was how awkward it was going to be to ask people about where and how they poop. Can you imagine if someone came to your house and started asking you about your toilet habits?

Response to The Hindu’s recent editorial on sanitation

rice- India latrine
We recently spoke with a retired public servant who built a latrine about a year ago that is used by only three of the thirteen people in his family. He told us that “if a man wants to stay healthy, then he should [defecate] outside,” and that in his village “you’ll find a latrine in everyone’s house, but I don’t want to go in one…I think going in latrines is disgusting.” This man’s beliefs were far from unique. Many of the people that we spoke with in rural Haryana felt similarly.

No shame in a simple pit latrine

Diane Coffey

Yesterday was my last day with the team in Rewari, Haryana.  Sangita, Nikhil, Nidhi and I had finished up collecting qualitative data to try to understand latrine adoption in the last 10 years.  Thanks to our friendly respondents, many of whom were willing to have their interviews recorded, we have lots of interesting findings about latrine adoption and use, and some really fun quotations.  But the findings of the “switching study” in Haryana will have to wait for another day.

Subscribe to RSS - Diane Coffey