Improving HABIT: households, attitudes, and behaviours to increase toilet use
This study tests the impact of a behaviourally-informed intervention in increasing toilet use amongst toilet-owning households in rural Bihar.
Nikita Purty
Nikita has been working with OPM for four years. She works extensively on public health, nutrition and sanitation projects. Her expertise is in M&E and qualitative research and has been part of a range of impact and process evaluations, operational research related projects based in India as well as Africa.
Selected publications:
Scott, K., Ummer, O., Shinde, A., Sharma, M., Yadav, S., Jairath, A., Purty, N., Shah, N., Mohan, D., Chamberlain, S. and LeFevre, A.E., 2021. Another voice in the crowd: the challenge of changing family planning and child feeding practices through mHealth messaging in rural central India. BMJ Global Health, 6(Suppl 5), p.e005868.
Viswanathan, S, Saith, R, Chakraborty, A, Purty, N, Malhotra, N, Singh, P, Mitra, P, Padmanabhan, V, Datta, S, Harris, J, Gidwani, S, Williams, R, Florence, E and Daniel, S, 2020. Improving households’ attitudes and behaviours to increase toilet use (HABIT) in Bihar, India, 3ie Impact Evaluation Report 118. New Delhi: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).
Purty, N. & Viswanathan, S. (2020, October 24). The Next Frontier of Rural Sanitation Policy in India: Health and Social equity. International Health Policies.
Projects involving Nikita Purty
Evaluating the effectiveness of WASH interventions in primary schools
This study explores the role of two interventions in promoting good WASH behaviours in primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, a state in north India: i) WASH curriculum delivered to primary school students, and/or ii) Operation and maintenance service for school WASH infrastructure
Evaluating the Norway-India Partnership Initiative
Evaluating the impact of the Norway-India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) Phase II
Evaluating a national maternity benefits transfer
The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana is a national maternity benefits transfer scheme.
Studying the impact of a behaviour change communication intervention on faecal sludge management in urban India
While faecal sludge management is considered to be an infrastructure issue, our study highlights the demand side concerns that need to be included in the larger discussion to address urban sanitation challenges.
Learning assessment of urban sanitation capacity building investments in India
The learning assessment will evaluate how capacities have been built and the strategies used by the TSUs to engage effectively with the government. The findings of the learning assessment will inform future Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation investments in the sector.
Latest updates from Nikita Purty
India’s Swachh Bharat Mission: how can toilet use be sustained?
On World Toilet Day we reflect on the progress made towards universal toilet use in India and explore how to overcome the challenges ahead.
New frontier for India’s rural sanitation policy
It is important to frame sanitation not just in terms of toilet use, but as a social and health issue