Chart of the Week: For India, Toilets Bring Benefits
IMF Blog, February 27, 2017
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: iMFdirect
- Published: February 27, 2017
Key findings on sanitation and socio-economic outcomes
- Improving public sanitation in India reduces time spent by women involved in household and childcare work by close to 10 percent.
- Improved sanitation increases labor force participation, or the proportion of women in the workforce, by 1.5 percent.
- Better sanitation contributes to a 1.4 percent increase in real GDP.
- Comparative data across the country show that better sanitation leads to higher female literacy rates.
- Poor sanitation negatively affects the quality and quantity of water and can have detrimental effects on health, education, quality of life, and women and girls’ safety.
Program impact and coverage statistics
- Swachh Bharat (Clean India) initiative, launched in 2014, resulted in a 13 percent increase in the number of households with access to toilets.
- Despite these gains, 53 percent of households still lack a toilet.
Policy implications and recommendations
- To maintain its rapid pace of economic growth, India must continue to improve access to sanitation facilities through infrastructure investments, targeted in rural areas, such as access to clean water.
- Policymakers should encourage the use of existing sanitation facilities and build awareness of their health benefits.
Source: iMFdirect, February 27, 2017.
