Add-on to Orissa trial to study Gram Vikas model To provide rigorous evidence of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and mechanism of action of the Gram Vikas sanitation program to end open defecation and yield positive health outcomes in rural India.

Project udpate in November 2017:

Tom Clasen’s special report presented the findings of the
Gram Vikas evaluation of a combined household-level piped
water and sanitation intervention in rural Odisha, India.

The evaluation measured impact on diarrheal diseases,
respiratory infection, soil-transmitted helminth infection, and
undernutrition. This was a matched cohort study, looking at
interventions that were already in place.

While the results show substantial increases in sanitation access and use and access to
improved water in the intervention areas, there was little or no
effect on the measures of environmental fecal contamination,
and no effect on diarrhea or respiratory infection. There was
a large effect on stunting and a decrease in STH infections.

Importantly the magnitude of the reduction in stunting is
very consistent with the existing evidence on the relationship
between change in open defecation and change in stunting.

Finally, there was no effect on women’s empowerment and
a reduction in women’s mobility attributable to reduced
time spent going for defecation and for fetching water.

This research gives rise to the need for better understanding
of environmental hazard exposures in the household and
mechanisms through which these effects may occur.

Source of the above: "MEDS Convening 2018
Conversations about Sanitation, SDGs and Research
Patna, Bihar, 2017" report by BMGF May 2018 (see link below)

Mission

To provide rigorous evidence of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and mechanism of action of the Gram Vikas sanitation program to end open defecation and yield positive health outcomes in rural India

MEDS Convening 2018 Conversations about Sanitation, SDGs and Research, Patna, Bihar, 2017 (May 2018)

BMGF grant database (brief information)

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Rural areasBehaviour changeHealth and hygieneSpecific to one or several countriesOtherBill & Melinda Gates FoundationRuralUniversity, education or research institution

Related Countries

India