book: Where India Goes

Around the world, people live longer, better lives than in centuries past, in part because of the rapid adoption of latrines and toilets that keep faecal germs away from growing children. India is an exception. Compared to the rest of the world, latrine and toilet adoption in India has been very slow and open defecation remains far too common. This is one reason why infants in India are more likely to die than in neighboring poorer countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, and are more likely to be stunted than children in sub-Saharan Africa. Because early-life conditions have life-long consequences, when children cannot develop to their potential, economic development is stunted, too.Where India Goes demonstrates that India's exceptional open defecation is not the result of poverty. It is an enduring consequence of the caste system, untouchability, and ritual purity. My co-author Dean Spears and I tell an unsanitized story of an unsanitary subject, with characters spanning the worlds of rural development policy -- from mothers and babies living in villages to local government implementers, senior government policy-makers and international development professionals. If you are in India, you can get the book here; if you are in the US you can get it here. You can listen to the audiobook here.