Resource library

Resources are listed below chronologically but are also searchable through using the keyword search and the filters in the sidebar, by Topic, Country, Date, Language and Type.

 

Key resource: Timely, Relevant and Actionable Reports for SBM

The momentum and scale of the Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM-G) is unprecedented. The speed of implementation means that the identification of gaps and finding answers to these in ways that provide practical ideas for policy and practice can have exceptionally widespread impact provided they can be timely, relevant and actionable. The trade-offs between timeliness and the time required for conventional academic rigour are vast. Fortunately, a range of innovations and approaches have recently been developed and applied in India for timely and practical learning on sanitation.

Date: 11 October 2017
Country: 
India

Beyond political commitment to sanitation: Navigating incentives for prioritisation and course correction in Ethiopia, India and Indonesia

This study examines how high-level political commitment for sanitation is translated into progressive outcomes through two processes: prioritisation through different layers of government; and course correction to tackle existing and emerging obstacles.

Date: 31 January 2017
Country: 
Ethiopia,
India,
Indonesia

SQUAT Research Brief No. 1: Ending open defecation requires changing minds

The SQUAT survey was a survey of Sanitation Quality, Use, Access and Trends in rural north India. From December 2013 to April 2014 over 3,200 rural households were asked about their sanitation behaviour and beliefs. Over 300 villages in 13 districts of Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh were visited by the researchers and data was collected on the defecation behaviour of 22,787 people.
Date: 8 July 2014
Country: 
India

Impact of Indian Total Sanitation Campaign on Latrine Coverage and Use: A Cross-Sectional Study in Orissa Three Years following Programme Implementation

Article by Sharmani Barnard, Parimita Routray, Fiona Majorin, Rachel Peletz, Sophie Boisson, Antara Sinha, Thomas Clasen in PLoS ONE 8(8): e71438. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071438 based on research on the impact of the Indian Government's Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) on latrine coverage and use among 20 villages in Orissa. 

Date: 28 April 2014
Country: 
India

Are children in West Bengal shorter than children in Bangladesh?

Children in West Bengal and Bangladesh are presumed to share the same distribution of genetic height potential. In West Bengal they are richer, on average, and are therefore slightly taller. However, when wealth is held constant, children in Bangladesh are taller. This gap can be fully accounted for by differences in open defecation, and especially by open defecation in combination with differences in women’s status and maternal nutrition.

Date: 19 February 2014
Country: 
Bangladesh,
India

Improved Use of Toilets Boosts Childhood Test Scores, Decreases Stunting

Access to improved sanitation can increase cognition in children, according to a new World Bank study. The study contributes to a growing body of research linking stunting and open defecation. Currently, more than 2.5 billion people worldwide lack access to toilets, and one billion people practice open defecation. 

Date: 19 November 2013
Country: 
India

Pathways to Sustainability in Community-Led Total Sanitation. Experiences from Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh

Inspecting latrines
India’s rural Total Sanitation Campaign (1999-2012) in India was considered a complete failure due to its poor results and the millions of ‘missing latrines’. In the light of the shortcomings of the campaign, different actors tried to introduce the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach in the country. However, as a result of opposition at the national level, only specific districts in certain states tried the approach. Many of these experiences were claimed to be very successful, but the evidence base of these claims was weak. Did they actually manage to introduce the CLTS in these areas? Did it yield good results? Are these sustainable?
Date: 29 August 2013
Country: 
India

Sanitation and stunting in India: Undernutrition's blind spot

Global proportions of ODF, poverty and undernutrition diagram
The puzzle of persistent undernutrition in India is largely explained by open defecation, population density, and lack of sanitation and hygiene. The impact on nutrition of many faecally-transmitted infections, not just the diarrhoeas, has been a blind spot. In hygienic conditions much of the undernutrition in India would disappear. To tackle undernutrition effectively requires the elimination of open defecation and a radical transformation of sanitation and hygiene policies and practices.
Date: 15 July 2013
Country: 
India

Toilet Coverage and Sanitation Performance in India By States (2001-2011)

Sanitation coverage by state (India) in 2001 and 2011

It is widely accepted that India’s “Total Sanitation Campaign has been a failure”.

In 2001 rural sanitation coverage was 22%. In 2011, ten years of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) later, the Government of India claimed that coverage was 68%. But recent Census data revealed that real coverage was only 31%. This means that less than one in five toilets reportedly constructed is in place.

Date: 4 February 2013
Country: 
India