Informing women and improving sanitation: Evidence from rural India

- Seventy percent of rural India does not have access to latrines, which poses a greater risk for women than men.
- Women with regular exposure to mass media are more likely to have latrines at home than women without regular exposure.
- Women having accurate health knowledge also increase the likelihood of having a latrine at home.
- Women having control of large purchases at home has a positive but smaller influence on having latrines.

A lack of access to sanitation not only has negative effects on the health outcomes of women, it adversely affects their physical security and threatens the lives of children, who are most susceptible to water-borne diseases. This paper explores the underlying conditions that improve access to basic sanitation services for women, with a particular focus on the role information has on the ownership of household latrines. Drawing from nationwide household-level panel data between 2004 and 2011 in rural India, I find that households in which women have regular access to mass media and accurate health knowledge are more likely to have latrines. I also find that women's decision-making power in the household makes a difference, but to a lesser degree. Extending this analysis with district-level data from India's sanitation campaign, the study also demonstrates that different mass media channels have distinct influences on the rural poor and non-poor. For the rural poor, where the consequences of a lack of sanitation are most acute for women, increasing latrine provision is more strongly associated with changes in radio ownership; for the non-poor television ownership has a stronger relationship. By highlighting the role of mass media in latrine ownership, and differentiating by gender, this study identifies an important mechanism that has been given less consideration in the study of women and access to basic services.