Missing basics: a study on sanitation and women's health in urban slums in Lucknow, India

Sanitation is a multidimensional concept alluding primarily to provision of services for safe disposal of human excreta, provision of clean potable water as well as maintenance of hygiene through judicious means of wastewater and solid waste disposal. This paper aims at studying the accessibility to toilet facilities by 350 slum residents belonging to 308 households, majority of whom are women. These were drawn from 14 selected notified slum colonies of Lucknow city during a field survey conducted in 2017. It was found that 68.42% respondent used shared toilet facilities, followed by private facilities at 10.57%. 19.21% depended on community toilets while 1.8% assented to open defecation. The BMI of women slum residents was found to be positively correlated with usage of private toilets (0.38; p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with open defecation (- 0.24; p < 0.01) both being considered as variables of sanitation conditions. Amongst the socio economic variables, the BMI of women slum residents was found to be positively correlated with median household income (0.64; p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with labour as a means of occupation (- 0.27; p < 0.01). In addition, a composite index was devised in order to assess the level of sanitation and socio economic development in the surveyed city slums. The slums close to the city core were found to be better developed compared to the ones at the periphery.