Community interactions and sanitation use by the urban poor: Survey evidence from India’s slums

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802091182
Author(s):  
YuJung Julia Lee ◽  
Tiffany Radcliff
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
High Population Density ◽  
Community Interactions ◽  
Open Defecation ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Latrine Use

While the current scholarship on open defecation overwhelmingly focuses on increasing access to sanitation facilities as the solution, millions of people around the world still practise open defecation despite having latrines. This is especially problematic in urban slums where people are more vulnerable to sanitation-related diseases compared with rural areas because of their high population density. We explore why latrines are not being used even when they are available to slum dwellers by identifying social interactions that serve as information channels that promote public latrine use. Using an original survey in New Delhi, we find that slum dwellers who frequently interact with slum leaders, more so than other community leaders, are more likely to use nearby public latrines regularly. A survey of slum leaders finds that their role in fixing and maintaining public latrines and informing others of these acts as well as educating people on hygiene encourage public latrine use.

scholarly journals Understanding Open Defecation in the Age of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Agency, Accountability, and Anger in Rural Bihar

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anoop Jain ◽  
Ashley Wagner ◽  
Claire Snell-Rood ◽  
Isha Ray
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Epidemiology ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Open Defecation ◽  
Rural Residents ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Latrine Use

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, India’s flagship sanitation intervention, set out to end open defecation by October 2019. While the program improved toilet coverage nationally, large regional disparities in construction and use remain. Our study used ethnographic methods to explore perspectives on open defecation and latrine use, and the socio-economic and political reasons for these perspectives, in rural Bihar. We draw on insights from social epidemiology and political ecology to explore the structural determinants of latrine ownership and use. Though researchers have often pointed to rural residents’ preference for open defecation, we found that people were aware of its many risks. We also found that (i) while sanitation research and “behavior change” campaigns often conflate the reluctance to adopt latrines with a preference for open defecation, this is an erroneous conflation; (ii) a subsidy can help (some) households to construct latrines but the amount of the subsidy and the manner of its disbursement are key to its usefulness; and (iii) widespread resentment towards what many rural residents view as a development bias against rural areas reinforces distrust towards the government overall and its Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-funded latrines in particular. These social-structural explanations for the slow uptake of sanitation in rural Bihar (and potentially elsewhere) deserve more attention in sanitation research and promotion efforts.

RURAL–URBAN MIGRATION AND CHILD SURVIVAL IN URBAN BANGLADESH: ARE THE URBAN MIGRANTS AND POOR DISADVANTAGED?

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. MAZHARUL ISLAM ◽  
KAZI MD ABUL KALAM AZAD
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Child Survival ◽  
Childhood Mortality ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Urban Rural

SummaryThis paper analyses the levels and trends of childhood mortality in urban Bangladesh, and examines whether children’s survival chances are poorer among the urban migrants and urban poor. It also examines the determinants of child survival in urban Bangladesh. Data come from the 1999–2000 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The results indicate that, although the indices of infant and child mortality are consistently better in urban areas, the urban–rural differentials in childhood mortality have diminished in recent years. The study identifies two distinct child morality regimes in urban Bangladesh: one for urban natives and one for rural–urban migrants. Under-five mortality is higher among children born to urban migrants compared with children born to life-long urban natives (102 and 62 per 1000 live births, respectively). The migrant–native mortality differentials more-or-less correspond with the differences in socioeconomic status. Like childhood mortality rates, rural–urban migrants seem to be moderately disadvantaged by economic status compared with their urban native counterparts. Within the urban areas, the child survival status is even worse among the migrant poor than among the average urban poor, especially recent migrants. This poor–non-poor differential in childhood mortality is higher in urban areas than in rural areas. The study findings indicate that rapid growth of the urban population in recent years due to rural-to-urban migration, coupled with higher risk of mortality among migrant’s children, may be considered as one of the major explanations for slower decline in under-five mortality in urban Bangladesh, thus diminishing urban–rural differentials in childhood mortality in Bangladesh. The study demonstrates that housing conditions and access to safe drinking water and hygienic toilet facilities are the most critical determinants of child survival in urban areas, even after controlling for migration status. The findings of the study may have important policy implications for urban planning, highlighting the need to target migrant groups and the urban poor within urban areas in the provision of health care services.

Common cancers in India: knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of urban slum dwellers in New Delhi

Public Health ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Seth ◽  
A. Kotwal ◽  
R. Thakur ◽  
P. Singh ◽  
V. Kochupillai
Keyword(s):  
Urban Slum ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Slum Dwellers

scholarly journals Community diagnosis for a slum population under the field practice area of a government medical college, New Delhi: community-oriented primary care exercise for undergraduate students

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 5404
Author(s):  
P. Aravind Gandhi ◽  
U. Venkatesh ◽  
Poornima Tiwari ◽  
Preety Doley
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Awareness Campaigns

Background: Rapid urbanization has led to the increase in a group of people called ‘Urban poor’ dwelling as a community in ‘Slums’, worldwide. Slums manifest deprivation that transcends income poverty. Hence, we conducted this Community-oriented primary care (COPC) exercise, to give medical students a greater understanding of the situation of individual patients in the slum and to formulate a community diagnosis.Methods: The current study was done at Tyagaraj Nagar Jhuggi in the South district of New Delhi, during Community-oriented primary care (COPC) exercise of undergraduate medical students in their 4th semester over a period of 20 days, using a predesigned proforma for collecting data on health events and determinants of health, from families. 35 households were chosen by systematic random sampling.Results: Out of 179 community members studied, 33 (18.43%) were afflicted with morbidity, which consists of common cold with cough, generalized body pain and joint pain. The sex ratio was found to be 826, literacy rate was 76.9% in the study area, 44.11% of the households were having sanitary latrines owned by them, 68.6% had a closed drainage system 63% of the families used clean fuel for cooking and unmet need of contraception was 85% among eligible couples.Conclusions: Investments in women’s access to various contraceptive preferences are urgently needed to help increase the contraceptive prevalence rate. Health Education and awareness campaigns on prevention of potential mosquito, fly breeding sites, hand hygiene, avoidance of firewood as fuel, establishing smoke outlet and solid waste management should be arranged.

Introduction: Labor in a Changing China

2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renqiu Yu
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Socialist Country ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
Chinese Workers

The experiences of the Chinese workers illustrate most dramatically the profound changes taking place in contemporary China. No longer the “leading class” in a socialist country, as proclaimed in the Constitution, many of them, especially the migrant workers from rural areas and the retired, the laid-off, the new urban poor, and farmers, are now reduced to being “the weak groups.” They are voiceless and defenseless, the most vulnerable and desperate people in a society that is rapidly transforming itself through marketization and globalization.

Slums of Chennai around the Buckingham Canal - with special reference to Govindaswamy Nagar

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Dr. B Jishamol
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rapid Transit ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Mass Rapid Transit

Buckingham Canal bank was an important water - way of old Madras. It has been facing slow death due to many reasons such as encroachments by various constructions like MRTS (The Mass Rapid Transit System is popularly called MRTS), and also the Urban poor, the slum dwellers. The slum dwellers face various problems like, flooding, insanitary conditions, health and socio-economic issues. One of the major issue is the eviction process. In this link, the Elango Street of Govindaswamy Nagar has been allotted by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board based on G.O.Ms.No 163 Housing (F) Department, Dated 28.02.1973. Elango Street escapes all the natural problems the other slums are facing, but it is expected to be evicted. This critical issue made the researcher to compare Elango Street of Govindaswamy Nagar with the other slums on the banks of Central Buckingham Canal.

Examining calorie undernourishment in India: Is it due to choice or inadequacy?

2020 ◽  
pp. 026010602094973
Author(s):  
Udaya S Mishra ◽  
Balakrushna Padhi ◽  
Rinju
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Food Expenditure ◽  
Lower Magnitude ◽  
Common Understanding

Background: Calorie undernourishment is often associated with poverty but India presents a unique scene of decline in money-metric poverty and rise in calorie deprivation. Existing literature has varied explanation towards this effect. However, neither are the poor entirely calorie compromised nor do all the non-poor qualify calorie compliance. Aim: This is an attempt at verifying whether calorie undernourishment is a result of choice of food basket or the inadequacy of food expenditure. Method: An answer to this question is attempted with the exploration of data obtained from the National Sample Survey Organization’s Consumption Expenditure of Indian households for the periods 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. Results: Findings reveal that over the last one decade, the average per capita per day calorie intakes have slightly increased from 2040.55 Kcal in 2004–2005 to 2087.33 Kcal in 2011–2012, which has led to the increased share of well-nourished households from 20.21% in the 61st round to 22.78% in the 68th round of survey in rural areas, whereas the similar increase in urban areas is from 36.1% to 40.65%. Conclusions: Calorie undernourishment among the non-poor is observed that calorie undernourishment, if any, among the non-poor is entirely due to choice but the same among the poor has a divide between choice and inadequacy. The urban poor are calorie compromised more due to choice rather than inadequacy as against their rural counterparts. With higher poverty, calorie, non-compliance among the poor is more due to choice when compared with lower magnitude of poverty. These observations form a basis for contesting the common understanding that calorie compromise is entirely driven by inadequacy/incapacity of food expenditure. could be viewed in terms of the food choices made, especially among the poor while setting the minimum threshold of food expenditure to be calorie compliant.

Assessing water supply for the urban poor in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
A.S.M. Shuaib ◽  
Md Masud Parves Rana
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Urban Slum ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Priority Areas ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Performance Evaluation Method ◽  
Rajshahi City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding about sources of water for the urban poor in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. It evaluates water supply performances to identify priority areas of water supply for further improvement. The paper also illustrates whether location of slums in the city has a connection with water supply facilities or not. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a case study of water supply for the urban slum dwellers. Based on a questionnaire survey, it evaluates performances of water supply following a holistic framework for assessing dimensions of water supply system among three slum zones of Rajshahi city. The dimensions of water supply are as follows: technical, biophysical, political, institutional, economic and social. Findings The research finds that most of the slum dwellers do not have reliable and sufficient access to water supply. The performance of water supply is location specific, and all of the slums do not have equal access to all dimensions of water supply. Overall performance of water supply is moderate, but individual performances of dimensions are unsatisfactory and unequal among the slums. Practical implications The paper suggests location-specific identification of strengths and weaknesses of water supply for the poor. It consolidates a performance evaluation method for identifying priority areas and needs of the urban poor for making Rajshahi city more inclusive and sustainable. Originality/value The paper provides an assessment of water supply performance for the urban poor in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh.

scholarly journals Shifting social norms to reduce open defecation in rural India

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
VARUN GAURI ◽  
TASMIA RAHMAN ◽  
IMAN K. SEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Cost Information ◽  
Open Defecation ◽  
Information Campaigns ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Latrine Use

Abstract Toilet ownership in India has grown in recent years, but open defecation can persist even when rural households own latrines. There are at least two pathways through which social norms inhibit the use of toilets in rural India: (1) beliefs/expectations that others do not use toilets or latrines or find open defecation unacceptable; and (2) beliefs about ritual notions of purity that dissociate latrines from cleanliness. A survey in Uttar Pradesh, India, finds a positive correlation between latrine use and social norms at baseline. To confront these, an information campaign was piloted to test the effectiveness of rebranding latrine use and promoting positive social norms. The intervention targeted mental models by rebranding latrine use and associating it with cleanliness, and it made information about growing latrine use among latrine owners more salient. Following the intervention, open defecation practices went down across all treatment households, with the average latrine use score in treatment villages increasing by up to 11% relative to baseline. Large improvements were also observed in pro-latrine beliefs. This suggests that low-cost information campaigns can effectively improve pro-latrine beliefs and practices, as well as shift perceptions of why many people still find open defecation acceptable. Measuring social norms as described can help diagnose barriers to reducing open defecation, contribute to the quality of large-scale surveys and make development interventions more sustainable.

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