Rural Housing and Risks for Children’s and Women’s Health: Estimates for Rajasthan State, India

This article is concerned with the prevalence of unhealthy housing (UH) in the rural areas of the state of Rajasthan, India. UH is defined to be the houses that are made with non-permanent materials and those that lack a supply of clean water and proper sanitation. Habitation in such houses poses a health risk, particularly for children and women. The Indian government has initiated various programmes to increase the provision of healthy housing for low-income rural families. However, the progress of these programmes has so far been constrained by the limited availability of resources. The prevalence of UH is measured here as the percentage of families that live in such houses. We test whether this prevalence and the associated risks to children’s and women’s health are significantly higher in the rural areas than in the urban areas. Our main finding is that the prevalence of UH is at least five times higher in the rural area than in the urban area. Moreover, this difference is much greater than that for some indicators of health care and household poverty.JEL Classification: R—Urban, Rural and Regional Economics, R-31—Housing Supply and Markets