Is the glass half full or half empty? Examining the impact of Swatch Bharat interventions on sanitation and hygiene in rural Punjab, India

This paper reports the findings of a cluster-randomized control study to assess the impact of India's flagship sanitation program, as implemented in Punjab, that aimed to eliminate the practice of open defecation and improve the awareness and practice of good hygiene across rural Punjab. The study finds that the program interventions specific to the Gram Panchayats (villages) had a modest effect on improving access to toilets and reducing open defecation among households with children in rural Punjab. However, awareness of the importance of handwashing before eating and after defecation among school-going children improved by 8–14 percentage points in treatment arms relative to control, though no significant impact on handwashing practices was observed. Consistent with the problem of implementation failure, the findings indicate the inherent difficulties of implementing bottom-up interventions through a large-scale government program.