Barriers to the Adoption of Improved Sanitation in Rural Punjab: An In-depth Exploration Using Fuzzy-AHP Analysise

Abstract

The burgeoning pool of evidence suggests discernible health and non-health benefits associated with improved sanitation (IS). Nevertheless, the poor and middle-income households among the Bagri community in rural Indian Punjab exhibit a discernible predisposition towards the uptake of ‘unimproved sanitation’ (i.e., usage of pit latrines [without slab]), instead of relying on the IS alternatives. The present exploratory study, based on primary survey, identifies and examines the various underlying quantitative and qualitative factors impeding the IS adoption among the middle-income cohort. The findings emerging from fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy-AHP) establish that ‘supply-side constraints’ and ‘socio-cultural impediments’ are the two most influential factors impeding the adoption of IS, while the ‘economic barriers’ were the least influential criteria among the sampled households. Among the global factors, ‘water insecurity’, ‘tabooism regarding lavatorial discussions’, ‘skepticism of IS being corporate’s marketing manoeuvre’ and ‘macro-inertia of miserliness’ were the most important sub-criteria. The findings also exhibit that factors such as ‘inability to pay’, ‘tenurial concerns’ and ‘remoteness’ are less important for the sampled households. The insights from the focus group discussions provide the policy makers several pragmatic measures from the ground for formulating targeted strategies to accomplish the desirable outcomes of IS among the Bagri community.