Rajasthan NFHS-4 Data: Improvement in sanitation is associated with Female Literacy

Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India - data.gov.in - is a platform for supporting Open Data initiative of Government of India. The portal is part of Digital India initiative intended to be used by Government of India Ministries/ Departments their organizations to publish datasets, documents, services, tools and applications collected by them for public use. It aims to increase transparency in the functioning of Government and also open avenues for many more innovative uses of Government Data to give different perspective.

The National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4), the fourth in the NFHS series, provides information on population, health and nutrition for India and each State / Union territory. NFHS-4, for the first time, provides district-level estimates for many important indicators. Some pieces of this data is also available on OGD platform in public domain.

I have used NFHS-4 district-level data of Rajasthan from OGD Platform to find out the performance of various key indicators across all 33 districts of Rajasthan. These key indicators include literacy, sanitation, clean fuel for cooking, sterilisation, health insurance etc.

Relation between Female Literacy and Sanitation
As per 2011 population Census, female literacy in Rajasthan stands at 52% which is well below national average of 64%. There is also huge regional disparity within Rajasthan which is evident from the map(Fig1) as western districts all placed below the Northern and North-east districts. According to NFHS-4 data female literacy varies from 37% in Jaisalmer and Barmer to 71% in Kota district.
What seems interesting in this regard is that household using improved sanitation facility follows similar trend as central and northern Rajasthan performing better than rest of the districts. Pratapgarh districts ranks the lowest with 15% household using improved sanitation facility. Churu ranks highest with 73%.

Fig1: Trend of female literacy levels across districts

Fig2: Trend of households having improved sanitation

Correlation coefficient between female literacy and household using improved sanitation facility comes out to be 0.72. This shows that there exist strong positive relationship between the two variables. The paper titled 'The Relationship between Inadequate Sanitation Facilities and the

Economic Well-Being of Women in India' by Mark Gius & Ramesh Subramanian published in 'Journal of Economics and Development Studies' also suggests the similar trend.

The trend underscores the fact that more literate the women is, more empowered she feel, which may transform into demand for improved sanitation facility in the four walls of home. We have seen an example in which lack of toilet became ground for divorce in Bhilwara district. Family court opined that toilet was necessary at home and going to defecate in the open was “disgraceful” for society and a “torture” to women. 

Reverse is also true

The relationship is not only confined to households and literacy leading to sanitation. Even improved sanitation facilities in school may also transform into increase in enrollment or decrease in drop outs.  It is also evident from the fact that large number of girls in India who drop out of school, particularly around the time they reach Class 8, is often due to a lack of toilet and water facilities. 

However, since the beginning of Swachh Bharat Mission the status of sanitation in Rajasthan improved considerably. In terms of toilets in rural households, Rajasthan stands at 10th position in India. Apart from building toilets equal attention needs to be given to spreading awareness and education particularly among females. Any change coming through community mobilisation is of sustainable in nature.

Community mobilisation through awareness

Open Defication was rampant in Natho ka Bas village in Dholpur district. `The district administration, led by District Collector Shuchi Tyagi began formulating a plan to incorporate the villagers in the toilet building program. Initially, they were informed about ill effects of defecating in open and how it is detrimental to dignity if individual, particularly, women. A community led total sanitation (CLTS) approach was undertaken to begin the construction of toilets so that the villagers could involve themselves towards transforming their futures. The villagers unanimously decided that it was time to end open defecation, and started digging holes themselves, gathering necessary building materials and commencing the construction work. 

Thus, we need to move and move fast towards achieving the twin goals - Education and sanitation. Both accelerate each other. This way we will be able to truly create New India. As Swami Vivekanand said " Bird cannot fly only on one wing". For the bird to roar in the sky both wings needs to be at par with each other and it will happen. One day!