Clean India: Stimulating
Behavior Change and Usage
Background
At a population of more than 1.2 billion, a sixth of humanity lives
in India and more than half of it defecates in the open. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has brought the issue of sanitation to
the forefront through his Swachh Bharat campaign, promising
a “Clean India” by 2019. One of the key initiatives in the
campaign is for the government of India to provide more than
100 million toilets in rural India over the next five years.
Provision of toilets is critical. Equally important is achieving
widespread and lasting usage through appropriate design,
regular maintenance, and behavior change. Toilets without
behavior change will fail to materialize the full benefits of a
complete WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) ecosystem.
Convening
The University of Chicago Center in Delhi, in conjunction with
the University of Chicago Booth School of Business’s Social
Enterprise Initiative and nonprofit Toilet Hackers, is bringing
the best minds together in 2015 to convene on the topic,
facilitated by resource partner Samhita Social Ventures.
The convening will offer a platform for meaningful engagement
among various stakeholders to understand the sanitation
challenges in India and build long-term collaborations that can
advance sustainable solutions.
The conference will bring together participants from the
government of India, NGOs, leading academics, funders,
and major corporations to further the conversation and forge
relationships that enable the creation of and research
on market-based strategies for interventions that drive
social change.
Richard H. Thaler, Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service
Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, faculty
director of Chicago Booth’s Center for Decision Research, and
president of the American Economic Association, will deliver
remarks. Thaler’s book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About
Health, Wealth, and Happiness, was a global best seller and the
inspiration for the UK government’s “Nudge Unit,” which
applies insights from behavioral economics and psychology to
public policy and services. His next book, Misbehaving:
The Making of Behavioral Economics, will be published in
spring 2015.
How to get involved
This event is by invitation only. To express interest in attending,
please contact [email protected].
The expected outcomes of the convening are:
• Drive critical thinking among stakeholders on various issues
related to WASH
• Showcase academic work on behavior change to influence
innovative practices
• Identify opportunities for academic research
• Create an enabling ecosystem by identifying the need to
support critical aspects of the WASH ecosystem (such as
technology platform, application tools, building capacity, etc.)
• Develop an “agenda for action” for holistic and sustainable
solutions for different stakeholders
DATE
April 17, 2015
VENUE
UChicago Center in Delhi
DLF Capitol Point
Baba Kharak Singh Marg
Connaught Place
New Delhi-110001
Clean India: Stimulating
Behavior Change and Usage
The Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
supports the aspirations of students and alumni to impact societal issues and furthers
research on how institutions help solve social problems. Through ongoing curricular
development, alumni and student programming, and support of faculty pursuits, SEI builds
on Chicago Booth’s commitment to rigorous analysis and its discipline-based approach to
understanding organizations, markets, and policy.
The University of Chicago Center in Delhi provides a base for research, teaching, and
dialogue among scholars from the university, across India, and around the world. The Center
serves as a working space for UChicago faculty and students, a gathering place for alumni,
and a forum for rekindling old relationships and forging new ones. It also provides
opportunities for interaction with the university’s Hyde Park campus, its centers in Beijing
and Paris, Chicago Booth campuses in London and Hong Kong, and other programs and
facilities around the world.
Toilet Hackers is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing widespread, safe, and
sustainable access to sanitation. With the World Bank, it colaunched the world’s first global
sanitation hackathon that was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Currently,
Toilet Hackers is partnering with the Sesame Workshop and World Association of Girl Guides
and Girl Scouts to launch a global campaign with a focus on adopting WASH skills in India,
particularly in the younger age groups.
Samhita Social Ventures is a social sector consulting firm in India supported by the
Nadathur Group, an initiative of N.S. Raghavan, a cofounder of Infosys Technologies.
Samhita’s work is focused on shaping strategies for companies and foundations’ social
initiatives, designing programs, creating multi-stakeholder partnerships and supporting
on-ground implementation of projects. Currently, Samhita is assisting some of India’s leading
companies to respond to the prime minister’s call to action by providing holistic and scalable
CSR solutions in WASH.
Doing Good Beer