Understanding the use of shared sanitation facilities in Delhi’s slums

ABSTRACT

Abstract: In 2020, 3.6 billion people lacked access to safely managed sanitation facilities worldwide, and among them, about 16 per cent used shared sanitation facilities. The most vulnerable urban populations residing in high-density informal settlements largely rely on community sanitation facilities. Thus, there is a need to examine ways to improve users’ experience of shared facilities. Using original surveys in New Delhi’s slums, this study shows that those with access to community toilet complexes were likely to use them regularly but were highly dissatisfied with their lack of availability and poor conditions. Additionally, the study highlights gender differences in preferences for using shared latrines, where women are more likely than men to use clean, functional, and less crowded ones.

KEYWORDS:

• sanitation
• India
• slums
• shared sanitation
• gender

Acknowledgement

The author gratefully acknowledges funding from Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service and the School of Public Health. This study is part of a larger project that was conducted together with Tiffany Radcliff, Texas A&M University School of Public Health. The study received institutional review board approval from Texas A&M University. I thank Morsel India, especially our team of survey enumerators, for their excellent work on fielding the survey, and Lindsay Ubaldini and Srilaxmi Sriram for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Shared sanitation is defined as sanitation services that are shared with two or more households (JMP).

2 Figures based on 2001 and 2011 Census of India.

3 2010 Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board Act

4 Source: Economic Survey of Delhi 2020–2021, Planning Department, Government of NCTD

5 According to the World Bank, the rate of open defecation in urban India was higher at 4.8 per cent in 2017. The discrepancy in these figures may be due to the household survey question on slum community activities. The open defecation rate in this survey was measured through the question “Do you have access to a public toilet or a shared toilet?” One of the responses was “no access to a shared toilet” and another was “other” with the option to explain. Thus, the response was only considered open defecation if the respondents chose to explain. Additionally, community leaders mentioned that one of their main actions regarding sanitation was talking to the community about the importance of the use of latrines and our survey showed that there was high awareness of the health benefits of using latrines.

6 In contrast, about 36 per cent of household latrine users responded they were dissatisfied and 42 per cent were satisfied with the current status of the community’s latrine availability and quality. Because they are mainly household latrine users, these figures should be interpreted with caution as they are more likely to reflect perceptions of sanitation issues in the community rather than current user experience.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Texas A&M University's Bush School of Public Service and Government and the School of Public Health.

Notes on contributors

YuJung Julia Lee

YuJung Julia Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Colorado State University. Her current research interests are in water, sanitation, and energy issues in developing countries.