Closing Access Loop: Situating
Post-infrastructural Assurance
Circumstances in Rural Sanitation
Kopal Khare and Sunny Jose
Abstract Ill-health outcomes and squalor living conditions are inextricably linked
with decommissioned water and sanitation considerations. The recent developments
in the country bear witness to the fact that the increased awareness and priority has
garnered inquiry, multiple interventions, and policy responses into the wider aspects
of the sector. The key findings of recently held National Annual Rural Sanitation
Survey 2017–2018, claim an almost full coverage of toilets as well as usage of the
same. Inequality concerns in deriving benefits from interventions may not figure
early in the availability of infrastructural arrangements, given the firm focus on the
sector, but there are inequitable experiences which emerge post water and sanitation infrastructural assurance posing challenges for people in rural areas. From the
benefit of hindsight, it could be inferred that water and sanitation centric interventions often suffer from a condition called ‘slippage’—an eventuality which besets
water and sanitation arrangements over a period of time while engendering people go
back to previous unhygienic preferences. In this literature-based paper, we explore
the plausible reasons behind the occurrence and draw interpretations grounded in
Amartya Sen’s view of justice which looks at an activity as ‘procedural fairness,’ i.e.
what people are able to do and be with a given amount of resources. The analysis
would then be followed by the review of empirical studies and sustainable sanitation
practices of nations which have achieved open defecation free status, and learning
outcomes that how they have managed to sustain it over a period of time.
Keywords Rural sanitation · Slippage · Access · Safely managed sanitation ·
Equity
K. Khare (B) · S. Jose
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science
Pilani-Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India
e-mail: p20160019@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
S. Jose
e-mail: sunny@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
S. K. Ghosh (ed.), Solid Waste Policies and Strategies: Issues, Challenges
and Case Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1543-9_7
73
Post-infrastructural Assurance
Circumstances in Rural Sanitation
Kopal Khare and Sunny Jose
Abstract Ill-health outcomes and squalor living conditions are inextricably linked
with decommissioned water and sanitation considerations. The recent developments
in the country bear witness to the fact that the increased awareness and priority has
garnered inquiry, multiple interventions, and policy responses into the wider aspects
of the sector. The key findings of recently held National Annual Rural Sanitation
Survey 2017–2018, claim an almost full coverage of toilets as well as usage of the
same. Inequality concerns in deriving benefits from interventions may not figure
early in the availability of infrastructural arrangements, given the firm focus on the
sector, but there are inequitable experiences which emerge post water and sanitation infrastructural assurance posing challenges for people in rural areas. From the
benefit of hindsight, it could be inferred that water and sanitation centric interventions often suffer from a condition called ‘slippage’—an eventuality which besets
water and sanitation arrangements over a period of time while engendering people go
back to previous unhygienic preferences. In this literature-based paper, we explore
the plausible reasons behind the occurrence and draw interpretations grounded in
Amartya Sen’s view of justice which looks at an activity as ‘procedural fairness,’ i.e.
what people are able to do and be with a given amount of resources. The analysis
would then be followed by the review of empirical studies and sustainable sanitation
practices of nations which have achieved open defecation free status, and learning
outcomes that how they have managed to sustain it over a period of time.
Keywords Rural sanitation · Slippage · Access · Safely managed sanitation ·
Equity
K. Khare (B) · S. Jose
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science
Pilani-Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India
e-mail: p20160019@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
S. Jose
e-mail: sunny@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
S. K. Ghosh (ed.), Solid Waste Policies and Strategies: Issues, Challenges
and Case Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1543-9_7
73