Caste, ‘cleanliness’ and cash: Effects of caste-based political reservations in Rajasthan on a sanitation prize

• Authors: Dean Spears, Sneha Lamba
• Published in: The Journal of Development Studies
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Abstract

Even compared with neighbouring countries, latrine use is especially uncommon in India. How might caste – historically associated with sanitation inequality – interact with government sanitation policy? Using data from Rajasthan state, we investigate the effect of caste-based reservations for village chairmen elected in 2005 on the likelihood of winning the government’s Clean Village Prize by mid 2012. This prize is a large cash award for villages in which open defecation has been eliminated; thus it is intended to be a prize for both latrine construction and use. Villages randomly assigned to a Scheduled (low-ranking) Caste chairman are less likely to win the prize.