While the current scholarship on open defecation overwhelmingly focuses on increasing access to sanitation facilities as the solution, millions of people around the world still practise open defecation despite having latrines. This is especially problematic in urban slums where people are more vulnerable to sanitation-related diseases compared with rural areas because of their high population density. We explore why latrines are not being used even when they are available to slum dwellers by identifying social interactions that serve as information channels that promote public latrine use. Using an original survey in New Delhi, we find that slum dwellers who frequently interact with slum leaders, more so than other community leaders, are more likely to use nearby public latrines regularly. A survey of slum leaders finds that their role in fixing and maintaining public latrines and informing others of these acts as well as educating people on hygiene encourage public latrine use.
目前，露天排便方面的绝大多数学术研究强调的解决方案是普及卫生设施，然而，在世界各地，数以百万计的人尽管有厕所，却仍在露天排便。这个问题在城市贫民窟尤其突出，因为这些地方人口密度很高，与农村地区相比，人们更容易感染与卫生设施相关的疾病。我们识别了一些作为提倡公共厕所使用的信息渠道的社会互动机制，并在此基础上研究为什么贫民窟居民在可以使用厕所的情况下，却没有使用这些厕所。我们基于新德里的一项原始调查发现，那些经常与贫民窟领导人互动的贫民窟居民（即，比他们与其他社区领导人的互动更频繁）更有可能经常使用附近的公共厕所。一项对贫民窟领导人的调查发现，他们在修理和维护公共厕所、向他人宣传这些行为、以及对人们进行卫生教育方面的努力促进了公共厕所的使用。