Can collective action strategies motivate behaviour change to reduce open defecation in rural India?
The world’s remaining open defecation is increasingly concentrated in rural India. The Indian Government’s efforts to reduce open defecation by providing subsidies for latrine construction have been largely unsuccessful in addressing the problem. It is now clear that behaviour change must be the priority if progress on ending open defecation is to be made. While community-led strategies have proven effective in various developing country contexts, there are serious reasons to question whether similar methods can work in rural India. Through both quantitative and qualitative analyses, we find that strict social hierarchies that continue to govern daily interactions in rural life today obstruct the spirit of cooperation upon which such methods rely. Additionally, caste-based notions of purity and pollution make the simple latrines used all over the developing world unattractive to rural Indians. In a context where people identify most closely with their caste and religious groups rather than their geographical villages, our findings suggest that a more nuanced understanding of the idea of ‘community’ is required. More experimentation, both with community-led and other strategies, is needed in order to effectively move from open defecation to latrine use in rural India.Aldrich, D.P. (2011) ‘The externalities of strong social capital: post-tsunami recovery in Southeast India’, Journal of Civil Society 7(1): 81–99 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2011.553441>.
Alesina, A., Baqir, R. and Easterly, W. (1999) ‘Public goods and ethnic divisions’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(4): 1243–84.
Ambedkar, B.R. (1936) Annihilation of Caste [online], New York: Columbia University <http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/> [accessed April 2015].
Ambedkar, B.R. (1956) Writings and Speeches of Dr. Ambedkar, Vol. 17, Mumbai: Govt. of Maharashtra, pp. 519–20.
Anderson, S. (2012) ‘Caste dominance in rural India: cause and effect’ [online], Ideas for India <www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=33> [accessed April 2015].
Balasubramanian, D., Chatterjee, S. and Mustard, D.B. (2011) ‘Got water? Social divisions and access to public goods in rural India’, Economica 18(321): 140–60 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12056>.
Banerjee, A., Iyer, L. and Somanathan, R. (2005) ‘History, social divisions, and public goods in rural India’, Journal of the European Economic Association 3(2–3): 639–47 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jeea.2005.3.2-3.639>.
Bathran, R. (2011) ‘Indian sanitation’, Economic & Political Weekly 46(51): 34–7.
Bozzoli, C., Deaton, A. and Quintana-Domeque, C. (2009) Adult height and childhood disease. Demography 46(4): 647–69.
Bros, C. and Couttenier, M. (2010) ‘Is blood thicker than water? Untouchability and public infrastructure’, manuscript, Paris: Université de Paris; New Delhi: Centre de Sciences Humaines.
Cavill, S., with Chambers, R. and Vernon, N. (2015) ‘Sustainability and CLTS: taking stock’, Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights, Issue 4, Brighton: IDS.
Census of India (2012) Houselisting and Houselisting Operations, New Delhi: Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
CLTS Knowledge Hub (2011) ‘The CLTS approach’ [online] <www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/page/clts-approach> [accessed April 2015].
Coffey, D., Gupta, A., Hathi, P., Khurana, N., Spears, D., Srivastav, N. and Vyas, S. (2014) ‘Revealed preference for open defecation: evidence from new survey data’, Economic & Political Weekly 49(38): 43.
Coffey, D., Gupta, A., Hathi, P., Spears, D., Srivastav, N. and Vyas, S. (2015) Culture and the Health Transition: Understanding Sanitation Behavior in Rural North India, Working paper, London: International Growth Centre.
Desai, S., Vanneman, R. and National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi (2010) India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2005 (ICPSR22626-v8) [online], Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research <http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR22626.v8>.
Dillingham, R. and Guerrant, R. (2004) ‘Childhood stunting: measuring and stemming the staggering costs of inadequate water and sanitation’, Lancet 363: 94–5 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)15307-X>.
Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Dyalchand, A., Khale, M. and Vasudevan, S. (2011) ‘Institutional arrangements and social norms influencing sanitation behaviour in rural India’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Gatade, S. (2015) ‘Silencing caste, sanitizing oppression: understanding the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, Economic & Political Weekly 50(44): 29–35.
Ghana WASH Project (2013) Lessons Learned: Hybrid CLTS Approach to Improving Sanitation, Washington, DC: USAID.
Government of India (1993) Centrally Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme: General Guidelines for Implementation, New Delhi: Ministry of Rural Areas & Employment.
Government of India (2014) Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) Guidelines [pdf], India Environment Portal <www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/guidelines_Swachh_Bharat_Mission_Gramin.pdf> [accessed December 2015].
Hathi, P., Spears, D. and Coffey, D. (2016) ‘Can collective action strategies motivate behavior change to reduce open defecation in rural India?’ [online], Research Institute for Compassionate Economics <http://riceinstitute.org/research/can-collective-action-strategies-motivate-behavior-change-to-reduce-open-defecation-in-rural-india/> [accessed January 2016].
Human Rights Watch (2014) Cleaning Human Waste: ‘Manual Scavenging,’ Caste, and Discrimination in India, New York: Human Rights Watch.
Karlan, D. (2007) ‘Social connections and group banking’, The Economic Journal 117(517): F52–F84 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02015.x>.
Kumar, A. (2010) Squatting with Dignity: Lessons from India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Kumar, N. and Shukla, J.P. (2011) ‘CLTS in the context of a countrywide programme in India: public good, private good?’ in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Mahbub, A. (2011) ‘Exploring social dynamics of CLTS in Bangladesh: the inclusion of children, women, and vulnerable groups’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Mehta, L. (2011) ‘Introduction: why shit matters: community-led total sanitation and the sanitation challenge for the 21st century’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Miguel, E. and Gugerty, M.K. (2004) Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya [pdf], working paper, Berkeley, CA: Econometrics Laboratory <http://eml.berkeley.edu//~emiguel/pdfs/miguel_tribes.pdf> [accessed April 2015].
Milner, M. (1987) ‘Dirt and development in India’, Virginia Quarterly Review 63: 54–71.
Patil, S., Arnold, B.F., Salvatore, A.L., Briceno, B., Ganguly, S., Colford Jr, J.M. and Gertler, P. (2014) ‘The effect of India’s total sanitation campaign on defecation behaviors and child health in rural Madhya Pradesh: a cluster randomized controlled trial’, PLOS Medicine 11(8): e1001709 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001709>.
Pattanayak, S., Yang, J., Dickinson, K., Poulos, C., Patil, S., Mallick, R., Blitstein, J. and Praharaj, P. (2009) ‘Shame or subsidy revisited: social mobilization for sanitation in Orissa, India’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87(8): 580–7 <http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.08.057422>.
Plan International and UNC Water Institute (2012) A Systematic Literature Review of Grey Literature Publications on Community-led Total Sanitation [online], Plan International and UNC Water Institute <http://waterinstitute.unc.edu/clts/> [accessed April 2015].
Ramaswamy, G. (2005) India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and Their Work, Pondicherry: Navayana.
Sanan, D. (2011) ‘The CLTS story in India: the sanitation story of the millennium’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Shah, G., Mander, H., Thorat, S., Deshpande, S. and Baviskar, A. (2006) Untouchability in Rural India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Spears, D. (2014) ‘Confronting the challenge: latrine use in rural India’, presentation at UNC Water Conference [online], New Delhi: Research Institute for Compassionate Economics <http://riceinstitute.org/presentation/confronting-the-challenge-part-1/> [accessed December 2015].
Spears, D. and Lamba, S. (2013) ‘Caste, ‘Cleanliness’ and cash: effects of caste-based political reservations in Rajasthan on a sanitation prize’, Journal of Development Studies 49(11): 1592–1606 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2013.828835>.
Srinivas, M. (1976) The Remembered Village, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
UNICEF (2012) ‘India: statistics’ [online] <www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_statistics.html> [accessed December 2015].
UNICEF India ‘Nutrition’, fact sheet [online] <www.unicef.org/india/nutrition.html> [accessed December 2015]
UNICEF and WHO (2015) Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2015 update [pdf] <www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-Update-report-2015_English.pdf> [accessed January 2016].
Vigdor, J. (2004) ‘Community composition and collective action: analyzing initial mail response to the 2000 census’, Review of Economics and Statistics 86(1): 303–12 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/003465304323023822>.
Waterlow, J.C. (1991) ‘Reflections on stunting’, International Child Health 2(2): 25–35.
World Health Organization (WHO) (1996) Simple Pit Latrines, Technical report, Geneva: World Health Organization.
Demographic and Health Surveys Program (various years), ICF International <www.dhsprogram.com/> [accessed 25 January 2016].
Aldrich, D.P. (2011) ‘The externalities of strong social capital: post-tsunami recovery in Southeast India’, Journal of Civil Society 7(1): 81–99 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2011.553441>.
Alesina, A., Baqir, R. and Easterly, W. (1999) ‘Public goods and ethnic divisions’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(4): 1243–84.
Ambedkar, B.R. (1936) Annihilation of Caste [online], New York: Columbia University <http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/> [accessed April 2015].
Ambedkar, B.R. (1956) Writings and Speeches of Dr. Ambedkar, Vol. 17, Mumbai: Govt. of Maharashtra, pp. 519–20.
Anderson, S. (2012) ‘Caste dominance in rural India: cause and effect’ [online], Ideas for India <www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=33> [accessed April 2015].
Balasubramanian, D., Chatterjee, S. and Mustard, D.B. (2011) ‘Got water? Social divisions and access to public goods in rural India’, Economica 18(321): 140–60 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12056>.
Banerjee, A., Iyer, L. and Somanathan, R. (2005) ‘History, social divisions, and public goods in rural India’, Journal of the European Economic Association 3(2–3): 639–47 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jeea.2005.3.2-3.639>.
Bathran, R. (2011) ‘Indian sanitation’, Economic & Political Weekly 46(51): 34–7.
Bozzoli, C., Deaton, A. and Quintana-Domeque, C. (2009) Adult height and childhood disease. Demography 46(4): 647–69.
Bros, C. and Couttenier, M. (2010) ‘Is blood thicker than water? Untouchability and public infrastructure’, manuscript, Paris: Université de Paris; New Delhi: Centre de Sciences Humaines.
Cavill, S., with Chambers, R. and Vernon, N. (2015) ‘Sustainability and CLTS: taking stock’, Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights, Issue 4, Brighton: IDS.
Census of India (2012) Houselisting and Houselisting Operations, New Delhi: Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
CLTS Knowledge Hub (2011) ‘The CLTS approach’ [online] <www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/page/clts-approach> [accessed April 2015].
Coffey, D., Gupta, A., Hathi, P., Khurana, N., Spears, D., Srivastav, N. and Vyas, S. (2014) ‘Revealed preference for open defecation: evidence from new survey data’, Economic & Political Weekly 49(38): 43.
Coffey, D., Gupta, A., Hathi, P., Spears, D., Srivastav, N. and Vyas, S. (2015) Culture and the Health Transition: Understanding Sanitation Behavior in Rural North India, Working paper, London: International Growth Centre.
Desai, S., Vanneman, R. and National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi (2010) India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2005 (ICPSR22626-v8) [online], Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research <http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR22626.v8>.
Dillingham, R. and Guerrant, R. (2004) ‘Childhood stunting: measuring and stemming the staggering costs of inadequate water and sanitation’, Lancet 363: 94–5 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)15307-X>.
Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Dyalchand, A., Khale, M. and Vasudevan, S. (2011) ‘Institutional arrangements and social norms influencing sanitation behaviour in rural India’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Gatade, S. (2015) ‘Silencing caste, sanitizing oppression: understanding the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, Economic & Political Weekly 50(44): 29–35.
Ghana WASH Project (2013) Lessons Learned: Hybrid CLTS Approach to Improving Sanitation, Washington, DC: USAID.
Government of India (1993) Centrally Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme: General Guidelines for Implementation, New Delhi: Ministry of Rural Areas & Employment.
Government of India (2014) Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) Guidelines [pdf], India Environment Portal <www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/guidelines_Swachh_Bharat_Mission_Gramin.pdf> [accessed December 2015].
Hathi, P., Spears, D. and Coffey, D. (2016) ‘Can collective action strategies motivate behavior change to reduce open defecation in rural India?’ [online], Research Institute for Compassionate Economics <http://riceinstitute.org/research/can-collective-action-strategies-motivate-behavior-change-to-reduce-open-defecation-in-rural-india/> [accessed January 2016].
Human Rights Watch (2014) Cleaning Human Waste: ‘Manual Scavenging,’ Caste, and Discrimination in India, New York: Human Rights Watch.
Karlan, D. (2007) ‘Social connections and group banking’, The Economic Journal 117(517): F52–F84 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02015.x>.
Kumar, A. (2010) Squatting with Dignity: Lessons from India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Kumar, N. and Shukla, J.P. (2011) ‘CLTS in the context of a countrywide programme in India: public good, private good?’ in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Mahbub, A. (2011) ‘Exploring social dynamics of CLTS in Bangladesh: the inclusion of children, women, and vulnerable groups’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Mehta, L. (2011) ‘Introduction: why shit matters: community-led total sanitation and the sanitation challenge for the 21st century’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Miguel, E. and Gugerty, M.K. (2004) Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya [pdf], working paper, Berkeley, CA: Econometrics Laboratory <http://eml.berkeley.edu//~emiguel/pdfs/miguel_tribes.pdf> [accessed April 2015].
Milner, M. (1987) ‘Dirt and development in India’, Virginia Quarterly Review 63: 54–71.
Patil, S., Arnold, B.F., Salvatore, A.L., Briceno, B., Ganguly, S., Colford Jr, J.M. and Gertler, P. (2014) ‘The effect of India’s total sanitation campaign on defecation behaviors and child health in rural Madhya Pradesh: a cluster randomized controlled trial’, PLOS Medicine 11(8): e1001709 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001709>.
Pattanayak, S., Yang, J., Dickinson, K., Poulos, C., Patil, S., Mallick, R., Blitstein, J. and Praharaj, P. (2009) ‘Shame or subsidy revisited: social mobilization for sanitation in Orissa, India’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87(8): 580–7 <http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.08.057422>.
Plan International and UNC Water Institute (2012) A Systematic Literature Review of Grey Literature Publications on Community-led Total Sanitation [online], Plan International and UNC Water Institute <http://waterinstitute.unc.edu/clts/> [accessed April 2015].
Ramaswamy, G. (2005) India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and Their Work, Pondicherry: Navayana.
Sanan, D. (2011) ‘The CLTS story in India: the sanitation story of the millennium’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Shah, G., Mander, H., Thorat, S., Deshpande, S. and Baviskar, A. (2006) Untouchability in Rural India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Spears, D. (2014) ‘Confronting the challenge: latrine use in rural India’, presentation at UNC Water Conference [online], New Delhi: Research Institute for Compassionate Economics <http://riceinstitute.org/presentation/confronting-the-challenge-part-1/> [accessed December 2015].
Spears, D. and Lamba, S. (2013) ‘Caste, ‘Cleanliness’ and cash: effects of caste-based political reservations in Rajasthan on a sanitation prize’, Journal of Development Studies 49(11): 1592–1606 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2013.828835>.
Srinivas, M. (1976) The Remembered Village, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
UNICEF (2012) ‘India: statistics’ [online] <www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_statistics.html> [accessed December 2015].
UNICEF India ‘Nutrition’, fact sheet [online] <www.unicef.org/india/nutrition.html> [accessed December 2015]
UNICEF and WHO (2015) Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2015 update [pdf] <www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-Update-report-2015_English.pdf> [accessed January 2016].
Vigdor, J. (2004) ‘Community composition and collective action: analyzing initial mail response to the 2000 census’, Review of Economics and Statistics 86(1): 303–12 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/003465304323023822>.
Waterlow, J.C. (1991) ‘Reflections on stunting’, International Child Health 2(2): 25–35.
World Health Organization (WHO) (1996) Simple Pit Latrines, Technical report, Geneva: World Health Organization.
Demographic and Health Surveys Program (various years), ICF International <www.dhsprogram.com/> [accessed 25 January 2016].
Aldrich, D.P. (2011) ‘The externalities of strong social capital: post-tsunami recovery in Southeast India’, Journal of Civil Society 7(1): 81–99 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2011.553441>.
Alesina, A., Baqir, R. and Easterly, W. (1999) ‘Public goods and ethnic divisions’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(4): 1243–84.
Ambedkar, B.R. (1936) Annihilation of Caste [online], New York: Columbia University <http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/> [accessed April 2015].
Ambedkar, B.R. (1956) Writings and Speeches of Dr. Ambedkar, Vol. 17, Mumbai: Govt. of Maharashtra, pp. 519–20.
Anderson, S. (2012) ‘Caste dominance in rural India: cause and effect’ [online], Ideas for India <www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=33> [accessed April 2015].
Balasubramanian, D., Chatterjee, S. and Mustard, D.B. (2011) ‘Got water? Social divisions and access to public goods in rural India’, Economica 18(321): 140–60 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12056>.
Banerjee, A., Iyer, L. and Somanathan, R. (2005) ‘History, social divisions, and public goods in rural India’, Journal of the European Economic Association 3(2–3): 639–47 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jeea.2005.3.2-3.639>.
Bathran, R. (2011) ‘Indian sanitation’, Economic & Political Weekly 46(51): 34–7.
Bozzoli, C., Deaton, A. and Quintana-Domeque, C. (2009) Adult height and childhood disease. Demography 46(4): 647–69.
Bros, C. and Couttenier, M. (2010) ‘Is blood thicker than water? Untouchability and public infrastructure’, manuscript, Paris: Université de Paris; New Delhi: Centre de Sciences Humaines.
Cavill, S., with Chambers, R. and Vernon, N. (2015) ‘Sustainability and CLTS: taking stock’, Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights, Issue 4, Brighton: IDS.
Census of India (2012) Houselisting and Houselisting Operations, New Delhi: Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
CLTS Knowledge Hub (2011) ‘The CLTS approach’ [online] <www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/page/clts-approach> [accessed April 2015].
Coffey, D., Gupta, A., Hathi, P., Khurana, N., Spears, D., Srivastav, N. and Vyas, S. (2014) ‘Revealed preference for open defecation: evidence from new survey data’, Economic & Political Weekly 49(38): 43.
Coffey, D., Gupta, A., Hathi, P., Spears, D., Srivastav, N. and Vyas, S. (2015) Culture and the Health Transition: Understanding Sanitation Behavior in Rural North India, Working paper, London: International Growth Centre.
Desai, S., Vanneman, R. and National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi (2010) India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2005 (ICPSR22626-v8) [online], Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research <http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR22626.v8>.
Dillingham, R. and Guerrant, R. (2004) ‘Childhood stunting: measuring and stemming the staggering costs of inadequate water and sanitation’, Lancet 363: 94–5 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)15307-X>.
Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Dyalchand, A., Khale, M. and Vasudevan, S. (2011) ‘Institutional arrangements and social norms influencing sanitation behaviour in rural India’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Gatade, S. (2015) ‘Silencing caste, sanitizing oppression: understanding the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, Economic & Political Weekly 50(44): 29–35.
Ghana WASH Project (2013) Lessons Learned: Hybrid CLTS Approach to Improving Sanitation, Washington, DC: USAID.
Government of India (1993) Centrally Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme: General Guidelines for Implementation, New Delhi: Ministry of Rural Areas & Employment.
Government of India (2014) Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) Guidelines [pdf], India Environment Portal <www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/guidelines_Swachh_Bharat_Mission_Gramin.pdf> [accessed December 2015].
Hathi, P., Spears, D. and Coffey, D. (2016) ‘Can collective action strategies motivate behavior change to reduce open defecation in rural India?’ [online], Research Institute for Compassionate Economics <http://riceinstitute.org/research/can-collective-action-strategies-motivate-behavior-change-to-reduce-open-defecation-in-rural-india/> [accessed January 2016].
Human Rights Watch (2014) Cleaning Human Waste: ‘Manual Scavenging,’ Caste, and Discrimination in India, New York: Human Rights Watch.
Karlan, D. (2007) ‘Social connections and group banking’, The Economic Journal 117(517): F52–F84 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02015.x>.
Kumar, A. (2010) Squatting with Dignity: Lessons from India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Kumar, N. and Shukla, J.P. (2011) ‘CLTS in the context of a countrywide programme in India: public good, private good?’ in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Mahbub, A. (2011) ‘Exploring social dynamics of CLTS in Bangladesh: the inclusion of children, women, and vulnerable groups’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Mehta, L. (2011) ‘Introduction: why shit matters: community-led total sanitation and the sanitation challenge for the 21st century’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Miguel, E. and Gugerty, M.K. (2004) Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya [pdf], working paper, Berkeley, CA: Econometrics Laboratory <http://eml.berkeley.edu//~emiguel/pdfs/miguel_tribes.pdf> [accessed April 2015].
Milner, M. (1987) ‘Dirt and development in India’, Virginia Quarterly Review 63: 54–71.
Patil, S., Arnold, B.F., Salvatore, A.L., Briceno, B., Ganguly, S., Colford Jr, J.M. and Gertler, P. (2014) ‘The effect of India’s total sanitation campaign on defecation behaviors and child health in rural Madhya Pradesh: a cluster randomized controlled trial’, PLOS Medicine 11(8): e1001709 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001709>.
Pattanayak, S., Yang, J., Dickinson, K., Poulos, C., Patil, S., Mallick, R., Blitstein, J. and Praharaj, P. (2009) ‘Shame or subsidy revisited: social mobilization for sanitation in Orissa, India’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87(8): 580–7 <http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.08.057422>.
Plan International and UNC Water Institute (2012) A Systematic Literature Review of Grey Literature Publications on Community-led Total Sanitation [online], Plan International and UNC Water Institute <http://waterinstitute.unc.edu/clts/> [accessed April 2015].
Ramaswamy, G. (2005) India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and Their Work, Pondicherry: Navayana.
Sanan, D. (2011) ‘The CLTS story in India: the sanitation story of the millennium’, in L. Mehta and S. Movik (eds), Shit Matters: The Potential of Community Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Shah, G., Mander, H., Thorat, S., Deshpande, S. and Baviskar, A. (2006) Untouchability in Rural India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Spears, D. (2014) ‘Confronting the challenge: latrine use in rural India’, presentation at UNC Water Conference [online], New Delhi: Research Institute for Compassionate Economics <http://riceinstitute.org/presentation/confronting-the-challenge-part-1/> [accessed December 2015].
Spears, D. and Lamba, S. (2013) ‘Caste, ‘Cleanliness’ and cash: effects of caste-based political reservations in Rajasthan on a sanitation prize’, Journal of Development Studies 49(11): 1592–1606 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2013.828835>.
Srinivas, M. (1976) The Remembered Village, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
UNICEF (2012) ‘India: statistics’ [online] <www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_statistics.html> [accessed December 2015].
UNICEF India ‘Nutrition’, fact sheet [online] <www.unicef.org/india/nutrition.html> [accessed December 2015]
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