{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-post-query-tsx","path":"/blog-post/if-you-cant-find-it-in-your-own-backyard/","result":{"pageContext":{"post":{"slug":"/blog-post/if-you-cant-find-it-in-your-own-backyard/","title":"If you can’t find it in your own backyard…","date":"Mar 21, 2012","timeToRead":2,"description":"","body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"title\": \"If you can’t find it in your own backyard…\",\n  \"date\": \"2012-03-21\",\n  \"template\": \"post\",\n  \"slug\": \"if-you-cant-find-it-in-your-own-backyard\",\n  \"postedLink\": \"https://riceinstitute.org/blog/if-you-cant-find-it-in-your-own-backyard/\",\n  \"old-tags\": [\"open-defecation\", \"population-density\"],\n  \"description\": \"\",\n  \"tags\": \"Blog Post\",\n  \"banner\": \"\"\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I\\u2019ve been staying away from the particular villages where Diane has been studying pregnancy and childbirth \\u2013 one more \", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"angrazi\"), \" might just be too much for her friends\\u2019 comfort. But her study is wrapping up, so this morning Diane took me on a long bicycle tour through these villages. Instead of going from our house to a village and back, we when from village to village, on the back roads. This tour \\u2013 out the back way of one village, in the back way of another, village after village all morning \\u2013 made salient a realization that had been lurking in the back of my mind.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I read a lot of academic papers about what people do to poop when they don\\u2019t have a toilet or latrine. It is common for these papers to make a claim along the lines that open defecation is not a health hazard in rural places because people only poop in designated open defecation zones, far away from the settled parts of the village. \", \"[\", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Warning: this post is about to get gross\"), \".\", \"]\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"This is flat wrong \\u2013 at least in rural Sitapur. There indeed are often socially designated open defecation areas, patches of ground, perhaps with some trees, where people go to poop. But they are not always away from people\\u2019s houses. Today we saw children almost playing in one.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"We saw several directly adjoining yards that would count as part of people\\u2019s homes. We saw villages with more than one open defecation area, next to houses on different sides of the village. Often one must pass through or near them to enter the village by some routes. Frequently one can smell human feces \\u2013 not cow, goat, or dog feces (know your scat) \\u2013 within villages. And more than once an open defecation zone was right next to the houses of the low caste people.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"And all of this is to say nothing of \\u201Cdry latrines\\u201D (corners set aside to defecate within household areas) and children defecating in and around houses as a matter of course.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Once I put two and two together, I couldn\\u2019t quite figure out how the smart people in the literature had gotten this so wrong. My hunch \\u2013 and I haven\\u2019t had a chance to check the books and articles \\u2013 is that people who write this stylized fact have most of their experience in rural Africa, where population density is much, much lower than in rural India. Even for India, population density in rural Uttar Pradesh is quite high \\u2013 we joke that it is impossible to go to a place outside in Sitapur where you cannot see another person. But, as Diane pointed out: even if population density is low, if you do not think it is problematic (or you do not internalize the externality) would you really want to walk that far to do your business? As they say, if you can\\u2019t find happiness in your own backyard\\u2026\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","tags":[{"name":"Blog Post","slug":"blog-post"}],"banner":null}}},"staticQueryHashes":["318001574","3787687951","3787687951"]}