1 Introduction

The access to a minimum sanitation facility to ensure zero open defecation has become a basic necessity for providing dignity, health, and well-being, especially to girls and women in most of the develo** countries, including India (O'Reilly & Louiss, 2014; Sinha et al., 2017; Abubakar, 2018). The incidence of sanitation-related diseases among the rural communities is one of the main deterrents in ensuring a good standard of living (Murray & Lopez, 1997). After looking at the meagre coverage of rural sanitation in 1981 Census, the central rural sanitation programme (CRSP) was introduced in 1986 with a focus on ensuring the dignity and privacy of women in the rural areas. Further, the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was also introduced by the government in the year 1999 to accelerate the sanitation program across the country using a demand-driven approach though community participation. The sanitation initiative in the country has experienced different phases of transformation to enhance the adoption and usage of sanitation programs such as individual household latrines among the rural communities.

The provisioning of universal access to sanitation and hygiene has become an international agenda under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. The target 6.2 of the SDGs has provided direction to all member nations to end open defecation by 2030 with special attention on women and girls, who are in a vulnerable situation. It is critical to note that about 15 percent of the world's population, primarily from develo** countries, still practice open defecation and the majority of them belong to rural areas, particularly in develo** countries. The global open defecation rate has significantly declined over the years due to increased awareness about the benefits of sanitation and hygiene, and in 2020 about 5 percent of the population was found to practice open defecation in 55 countries. India has achieved tremendous success in reducing open defecation from 43.9 percent in 2010 to 14.9 percent in 2020, as per the World Bank Development Indicator data. The recent National Family Health Survey (NHFS-5) conducted in the year 2019–2021 also estimated that about 83 percent of the households sampled in the survey were having access to toilets, whereas accessibility in rural areas is only 76 percent.

The TSC was renamed as “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan” (NBA) on April 1, 2012, which aimed at accelerating sanitation coverage with a renewed approach of achieving 100 percent saturation of villages under the scheme to create Nirmal Gram Panchayats. Further, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was set in motion in India by the Prime Minister on 2nd October 2014, which aimed at changing people's behavior to create a new image of rural India regarding sanitation. Considering the importance of using hygienic toilet facilities, several studies assessed and identified the factors influencing the adoption of improved sanitation practices across develo** nations (Hirai et al., 2018; Sarkar & Biswas, 2019; Zhou et al., 2022). Dhaktode (2014) elaborated the difficulties faced by the rural population, particularly women, in practicing open defecation and asserted the role of the community in promoting the adoption of appropriate sanitation practices and hel** the government achieve the goal of zero open defecation in the country. Doron and Jeffrey (2014) identified challenges in designing and implementing the sanitation program in India and highlighted the obstacles in people’s acceptance toward dealing with human waste. Ignacio et al. (2018) assessed the attitude of the rural population in adopting Eco-Toilet Systems in Philippines and revealed that people who have knowledge of the nutrient value of human excreta, have a more positive attitude toward the adoption of eco-toilets. Further, Tamene and Afework (2021) explored the barriers in adopting and utilizing the improved latrine facilities in rural Ethiopia in terms of contextual, psychosocial, and technological factors. Mishra et al. (2021) argued that in the rural areas, the viability of open defecation-free (ODF) status should not be assessed based on the number of toilets constructed; rather, it should be evaluated based on the usage level among the population.

Novotný and Mamo (2022) reviewed the factors affecting household-level sanitation in Ethiopia, highlighting that key focus has been on understanding the adoption of basic latrines; and studies on identifying the drivers of the sustainability of sanitation such as upgrading of latrines, has been rare despite its urgency. Rashid and Pandit (2019) analyzed the issue of lack of disposal systems among household toilets and found that the households are willing to pay for better service quality and improvement in attributes of toilets and hygiene. A number of studies have asserted that green toilets can easily decompose the waste economically, hygienically, and environmentally friendly (Anand & Apul, 2014; Swathy et al., 2022). There is limited empirical evidence on determinants of green toilet adoption. Few studies have analyzed the determinants of the adoption of toilets in India with limited geographical coverage (Av et al., 2017; Kumar & Mishra, 2016; Schmidt et al., 2020; Sinha et al., 2017). The present study aims at identifying the determinants of adopting green toilets by rural households in India. The specific objective of the study is to assess the relationship between the adoption of green toilets across geographical locations and socio-demographic profiles of rural households to understand the characteristics of green toilet adopters and non-adopters. Further, the study has identified a set of demographic, social and economic factors affecting the adoption of green toilets in rural India.

This paper makes several practical and theoretical contributions to the existing literature on the adoption and usage of toilets among rural households. Firstly, a conceptual research framework and hypotheses have been developed using the grounded theory approach, which provides opportunities to extend future research. Secondly, this research has tried to enhance the understanding of the nature of toilet usage in rural areas and the difference in the adoption of standard toilets vis-à-vis green toilets. Thirdly, the paper contributes by providing an association between toilet adoption and geographical location and the socio-demographic characteristics of rural families, which helps in understanding the profiles of adopters and non-adopters of green toilets in a better way. Finally, this paper estimates the determinants of adopting green toilets among rural households in terms of demographic, social and economic factors, which is critical for a country like India in achieving the goal of zero open defecation. Therefore, the identification of key determinants of green toilet adoption among rural populations can help in designing a better sanitation plan for rural areas.

After the introduction, the research paper has been structured into a number of sections. Section 2 gives a brief review of the literature followed by research hypotheses. Section 3 puts forth the research methodology used in the study. Section 4 includes results based on the analysis, followed by the discussion. The conclusion, along with the policy implications are discussed in the last section.

2 Review of the literature and research hypotheses

The provision of proper sanitation and incidence of open defecation has been evaluated by many researchers globally, which is mainly critical in develo** and least-developed countries (Abubakar, 2018; Busienei et al., 2019; Dickin et al., 2018; Lopez et al., 2019). Studies have indicated that latrine ownership in villages has increased over the years, yet open defecation remains a common practice in varied magnitude across countries (O'Reilly et al., 2017; Gupta et al., 2019; Exum et al., 2020). Coffey et al. (2014) analyzed that despite economic growth, government support for the construction of latrines at the household level, awareness among people and policymakers on health issues related to open defecation, and the sanitation preference in rural communities, zero open defecation still remains a concern. They suggested that along with the construction of latrines in every rural household, there should also be a focus on launching a large-scale campaign to promote latrine use on a regular basis. Exum et al. (2020) assessed the status of open defecation in the state of Rajasthan under the Clean India Mission using a cross-sectional survey and concluded that there has been a significant decline in open defecation cases. However, about 23 percent rural families having individual toilet facilities have reported minimum one family member to be still defecating in the open fields.

Further, the implications of open defecation on health, human dignity, social status, and well-being, especially among women, have been evaluated by many researchers, which is considered to be one of the critical policy agendas (Gauri et al., 2020; Saleem et al., 2019; Vyas et al., 2019). Saleem et al. (2019) assessed the implication of open defecation on health and social well-being of women and concluded that it is against human dignity and respect in the society. Spears et al. (2013) investigated the impact of poor sanitation on growth of a child and established a significant relationship between open defecation and the incidence of stunting among children in India. Spears (2020) further evaluated that exposure to open defecation may lead to Indian enigma of child height, which is an essential measure of human capital. Harter et al. (2019) argued that unsafe sanitation is one of the significant sources of environmental pollution, threatening human life in poor countries. Panda et al. (2017) analyzed that mismanagement of toilet waste, and the lack of proper disposal of human excreta is an important source of sickness and loss of life in low-income nations. Bhatt et al. (2019) explored the motivation among people preferring open defecation despite having toilet facility at the household level in Nepal as socializing, independent outdoor activity, habit, convenient choice, religious beliefs, and hygiene issues. Vyas and Spears (2018) assessed the relationship between the adoption of sanitation practices with religion in three countries such as Bangladesh, India and Nepal and concluded that the incidences of open defecation have shown a significant relationship with religion as several religious rituals of purity discourage people from having toilet facility in the proximity of their residential areas.

The adoption behavior of individuals and households for sanitation and use of improved toilets has been assessed using a number of theoretical models such as the integrated behavior model of water, sanitation, and hygiene framework. (Lopez et al., 2019), the technology acceptance model (Ignacio et al., 2018), the theory of planned behavior (Raendran et al., 2020), the theory of change (Ashraf et al., 2021; Gauri et al., 2020; Schmidt et al., 2020), and the social identity theory (Harter et al., 2019). A number of studies have also used the grounded theory approach in the process of identifying the determinants of sanitation and toilet adoption among the communities (Sahoo et al., 2015; Kumar & Mishra, 2016; O'Reilly et al., 2017). Viswanathan et al. (2019) argued that sanitation programs must recognize the deep-rooted social, religious and psychological factors while promoting a behavioral change among people.

Considering the critical nature of the problems arising from open defecation, several studies have assessed the factors that affect the adoption and usage of toilet facilities among the rural homes (Kumar et al., 2017; Adhikari & Ghimire, 2020). Augsburg and Rodríguez-Lesmes (2020) analyzed the implications of toilet acquisition for economic and social benefits and concluded that health is the primary driver of adopting toilet usage, which in turn, enhances social and economic well-being. Surya et al. (2017) identified the determinants of toilet usage among the urban poor in India and concluded that a proper campaign design for behavioral change among people would enhance toilet construction and sustained use. An increased awareness and community participation in sanitation program design and implementation is the key to formulating an effective strategy for reducing open defecation and perceived biases among people for improving their health & hygiene (Kuang et al., 2020; Neal et al., 2016). O’Reilly & Louis (2014) explored the adoption of sanitation programs in India using the concept of “toilet tripod” comprising of three elements i.e., political, economic, and environmental factors in assessing the determinants of toilet adoption in rural India. Sinha et al. (2017) analyzed the factors influencing the usage of toilets among the beneficiaries of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in Odisha state and found that demographic characteristics pf households such as gender, age, and household size; and design of latrine in terms of door, seat, and latrine roof were important factors influencing the usage. A summary of the reviewed literature on toilet adoption is given in Table 1.

Table1 Summary of the reviewed literature on toilet adoption.
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The literature review reveals that open defecation is still one of the areas of concern among rural communities in develo** countries. Adoption of toilets is being affected by a variety of factors related to demographics and socio-economic variables. The availability and usage of toilets have multiple implications for human beings related to social, health-related, and environmental aspects. Considering the importance of the issue of making the country open defecation free, it is imperative to understand the various factors affecting the toilet adoption among the rural people, including green toilets. Although a lot of emphasis has been put on providing government support to the rural families in constructing toilets at the household levels, there are still a significant number of rural households which do not have access to toilet facilities. Therefore, this study tries to address two research questions—(i) if there is any association between access to toilet facilities across geographic locations and socio-economic profiles of the rural households to understand the difference in adopting sanitation practices, and (ii) how do the determinants in terms of demographic, social and economic factors affect the adoption of green toilets by the rural families in India. Based on the above research questions, following hypotheses have been formulated and tested in this study:

H1

There is significant association between location & household characteristics with adoption of toilets in rural areas

H2

Demographic factors have a significant impact on the adoption of green toilets among rural households

H3

Social factors have a significant impact on the adoption of green toilets among rural households

H4

Economic factors have a significant impact on the adoption of green toilets among rural households

The hypotheses and the proposed research framework for identifying the determinants of green toilet adoption is depicted in Fig. 1. Firstly, the association between the location & demographic characteristics of the rural households with the adoption of green toilet is estimated using chi-square test. Secondly, the determinants of the adoption of green toilets have been assessed using logistics regression with the help of marginal effect estimates. Further, it is assumed that demographic, social and economic factors have a substantial effect on adoption of green toilets among rural households in India.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Research framework and hypotheses

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3 Data and methods

3.1 Data source and variable definitions

The data for this study has been extracted from the COVID-19 Related Shocks Survey in Rural India 2020, primarily conducted in collaboration with Iparameters were states of India, this study is based on the survey data of 2731 rural households of has been used for conducting a high frequency survey based on stratified random sampling technique. Prior consent and appointments were taken from the potential respondents to avoid non-responses, and surveyors made up to 7 attempts in case the respondent’s mobile could not be reached for recording the survey.

The data collection process was administered using a well-structured questionnaire comprising of various aspects of rural life likely to be affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, basic identification and socio-demographic questions were also part of the questionnaire survey. Based on the aim of this study to explore access to green toilets among rural households, a set of relevant variables related to adoption of toilets, and demographic, social and economic parameters have been extracted from the survey data. The detailed description of the variables and descriptive statistics are given in Table 2. The accessibility of toilets among the rural households has been recorded as (1) household does not have a toilet (2) households with flush/pour-flush latrine connected to septic tank, (3) households with flush/pour-flush latrine connected to the piped sewer system, (4) households with pit latrine having slab/ventilated improved pit (5) households with flush/pour-flush latrine connected to other systems (6) households with latrine having a slab/open pit. A green toilet may be defined as the toilet system which discharges effluents according to the environmental norms. Therefore, toilets with flush/ pour flush latrine connected to a septic tank, flush/pour flush latrine connected to the piped sewer system, flush/pour flush latrine connected to other systems are termed as a green toilet in this study. Further, the dependent variable has been altered to a binary variable indicating rural households with green latrine as 1 and otherwise as 0. Similarly, a set of independent variables comprising demographic, social and economic factors have been identified to estimate the factors affecting the adoption of toilet facilities and these explanatory variables have also been converted into binary form.

Table 2 Variable definition and descriptive statistics.
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3.2 Data analysis

The data in the study has been examined with the help of descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and regression analysis with marginal effect. Firstly, the association between the geographical location and the rural households’ socio-demographic characteristics with and without green toilet facilities has been explored with the help of chi-square test. Secondly, a regression model with marginal effect has been estimated to identify the factors affecting green toilet adoption among rural households. Accessibility to the green toilet has been measured through binary scales 1 and 0. Rural households with no green toilets are labeled as 0, while accessibility to the green toilet is 1. Finally, a set of demographic, social, and economic indicators have been taken as independent variables. Logistic regression is a widely adopted method that predicts the probability of a binary outcome with respect to the set of predictor variables that may affect the outcome. The logistic regression model equation is given as follows:

$$y_{i}^{*} = \alpha + \mathop \sum \limits_{{{\varvec{i}} = 1}}^{{\varvec{n}}} {\varvec{\beta}}_{{\varvec{i}}} {\varvec{X}}_{{\varvec{i}}} + {\varvec{\varepsilon}}_{{\varvec{i}}}$$
(1)

where \({y}_{i}^{*}\) is the unobserved value of access to green toilets, Xi is the vector of independent variables. βi is the coefficient of estimates of independent variables. α and \({\varepsilon }_{i}\) are the intercept and error term, respectively, in the model.

4 Results

4.1 Access to various types of toilets by states

The government has constructed toilets to reduce open defecation across the country, particularly in rural areas. The union government launched Pradhan Mantri Sauchalay Yojana under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to build toilets as Individual House Hold Latrine (IHHL). Table 3 provides access to various types of toilets among rural households across the study locations. On an average, 42.4 percent rural households have reported having no toilets in their houses and 36.2 percent have reported having green toilets with proper sewage disposal systems while remaining 21.4 percent have reported to be having other types of toilets. Results of the chi-square test (χ2 = 191.153, P < 0.01) revealed a significant and positive association between types of toilets and the location of the sample states. In Bihar, the highest percentage (53.8) of rural households do not have toilets, followed by Uttar Pradesh (35.7%) and Madhya Pradesh (35.5%). The fraction of rural households defecating in open has gone down significantly while comparing a study by Gupta et al. (2014) in five states of India. In Uttar Pradesh, a major chunk of the rural households (25.9%) have access to the flush/ pour-flush toilet connected to the septic tank, followed by flush/ pour-flush toilet connected to the piped sewer system (15.5%). While, in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the flush/ pour-flush latrine connected to the septic tank is accessed by 25.9 percent and 20 percent of rural households, respectively (Fig. 2). Accessibility to pit latrine with a slab/ open pit is highest in Madhya Pradesh (8.6%), followed by Uttar Pradesh (4.5%) and Bihar (1.5%).

Table 3 Percentage of rural households reporting access to type of toilets by states.
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Fig. 2
figure 2

Percentage of rural households reporting access to type of toilets by states

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4.2 Access to green toilets by household characteristics

Table 4 provides the association between rural household characteristics and the adoption of green toilet facilities using chi-square test. The analysis shows a statistically significant association between the age group and adoption of green toilets (χ2 = 20.671, P < 0.01) implying that accessibility of green toilets is positively associated with age. Gender and household size have not shown significant association with green toilet adoption. As far as females’ education is concerned, results of the chi-square test reveal a significant association with the accessibility of green toilets among rural households (χ2 = 45.84, P < 0.01). The findings indicate that those rural households which have educated females are more likely to adopt green toilets. The households’ social category has also indicated a significant association with green toilet adoption (χ2 = 26.567, P < 0.01). This implies that the socially upper class has relatively better access to green toilets among rural households as compared to lower social classes. It is important to note that accessibility to the green toilet is significantly higher for higher-income quartile households (χ2 = 72.995, P < 0.01).

Table 4 Access to green toilets by household characteristics.
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The analysis of association between location & household characteristics and adoption of toilets in rural area with the help of chi-square test clearly indicates a significant relationship. Therefore, hypothesis H1 which assumes that there is significant association between geographical location & household characteristics with adoption of green toilets among rural households is accepted. The results of the analysis also reveal that about 41.4 percent rural households in the state of Uttar Pradesh have reported that they have access to green toilets followed by Bihar (34.9%) and Madhya Pradesh (33.5%). In summary, the analysis points out that rural households with higher age, having educated females in the family, belonging to higher social and income categories are comparatively more associated with the adoption of green toilets. Sinha et al. (2017) also suggested a similar relationship between household characteristics and latrine use in rural settings.

4.3 Factors affecting the adoption of green toilets among rural households

A number of studies have assessed the determinants of adoption of toilets in various counties to eradicate the open defecation (Sinha et al., 2017; Abubakar, 2018; Lopez et al., 2019; Augsburg et al., 2020). To explore the demographic, economic and social determinants of green toilet adoption in rural areas of the country, a logistic regression model has been estimated using marginal effect. Adoption of green toilets has been taken as the dependent variable, while a set of demographic factors (age, gender, education, income, occupation, and family size), social factors (social class, poverty status, SHG membership) and economic factors (access to information, availability of drinking water, household assets, MGNRGA job card) have been considered as independent variables. Parameter estimates of logistics regression in terms of the regression coefficient, significance level, and marginal effects are given in Table 5. The marginal effect provides the change in probability when the predictor variable increases by one unit. The log-likelihood assesses the goodness-of-fit for model coefficients, LR chi2, and pseudo-R2 statistics.

Table 5 Determinants of access to green toilets among rural households.
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The analysis of marginal effect of demographic characteristics of rural households on adoption of green toilets shows a significant impact for 3 out of 5 demographic factors. The marginal effect of age on green toilet adoption among rural households is positive and significant (P < 0.05), showing that age positively affects the adoption of green toilets among rural people. It may be due to the fact that older people are more health conscious and understand problems associated with open defecation (Adewara et al., 2018; Espinosa & Kadić-Maglajlić, 2018). The marginal effect for education level between 6 and 10th Class (P < 0.01) and above 10th Standard (P < 0.01) reveals a positive and significant impact on the adoption of green toilets. This implies that highly educated people are more aware and sensitive toward health and are concern about convenience (Banna et al., 2022; Damsgaard et al., 2022; Agbadi, 2019). In addition, previous researches also showed that educated people have significantly more access to sanitation facilities (Armah et al., 2018; Angoua et al., 2018 and Collignon et al., 2018). Further, the analysis indicates that household income has a positive and significant marginal effect on the adoption of green toilets (P < 0.01). A good amount of money is needed to construct a green toilet, which also requires regular maintenance (Tembhurkar, 2022; Buitrago-García, 2022). In addition, having green toilet is prestigious and therefore rich people link it with a high standard of living in rural areas (Jenkins & Curtis, 2005; Mkhize et al., 2017). Therefore, hypothesis H2, which assumes that demographic factors have a significant marginal effect on the adoption of green toilets among rural households, is partially accepted.

Further, the marginal effect of social factors on adoption of green toilets among rural households has been estimated for social category, poverty status, and SHG membership, where only social category has shown a significant implication. The analysis indicates a positive and significant marginal effect for social category in adopting green toilets, which implies that socially upper-class households are 6.9 percent more likely to adopt green toilets in rural areas. Earlier researches have also revealed that lower-caste groups are disadvantageous in terms of having facilities for comfortable living and health (Baru & Bisht, 2010; Bertrand et al., 2010; Uddin et al., 2020). Moreover, they are not financially sound and also have space issues at their homes (Deshpande, 2021; Khan et al., 2021; and Kumara, 2021). Therefore, hypothesis H3 which assumes that social factors have significant marginal effect on adoption of green toilets among rural households is partially accepted.

Finally, the marginal effect of economic factors on adoption of green toilets shows significant implications of 3 out of 4 economic variables. The marginal effect analysis for access to information shows a positive and significant influence on green toilet adoption among rural families (P < 0.1), which suggests that rural households with access to information are 3.9 percent more likely to adopt green toilets. The enhanced access to information makes people more empowered in terms of understanding the quality of life, availing convenience of facilities, taking decisions and trying new options for an improved lifestyle (Dickin et al., 2021; Mensah, 2019). The marginal effect for households with drinking water facilities shows a positive and significant implication on greet toilet adoption (P < 0.01). As far as household assets are concerned, analysis suggests that it significantly determines the adoption of green toilets (P < 0.01). The marginal effect reveals that households with a higher number of assets are 2.6 percent more likely to adopt green toilets. It clearly suggests that resource and capacity is necessary for adoption of green toilets. Therefore, hypothesis H4 which assumes that economic factors have significant marginal effect on adoption of green toilets among rural households is largely accepted.

5 Discussion

Open defecation in many of the develo** countries including India is deeply associated with cultural and traditional beliefs. Therefore, promoting a behavioral change among people on safe and hygienic defecation with dignity has received a focused policy intervention for creating holistic impact on adoption of sanitation and latrine practices. Previous studies on access to toilet facilities in India highlighted a significant improvement over the years in adoption of toilet usage with concerns for improving the accessibility among the rural households (Kumar, 2017; Novotný et al., 2018; Routray et al., 2015). According to WHO (2017), more than one billion people are practicing open defecation and a major share is contributed by India, particularly from the rural population. Our study indicates that the situation is still severe in state like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh due to high incidence of open defecation, which has significantly declined over the years. Kumar, (2017) assessed that the poor offtake of sanitation programs is one of the key reasons for such incidents. Moreover, lack of funds to build toilets, environmental factors, socio-economic status, unavailability of water and unawareness regarding the government schemes have been reported as the major reasons for inaccessibility to green toilets among rural populations (O’Reilly & Louis, 2014; McMichael, 2018; Juran et al., 2019).

Our findings provide a significant association between geographical location & socio-demographic features of rural families and the adoption of green toilets. Few studies focusing on adopting sanitation programs across various states of India provide key policy insights for develo** strategies based on the specific requirement of the geographical location (Gupta et al., 2014; O'Reilly et al., 2017; Vyas et al., 2019; Schmidt et al., 2020). Further, the results of marginal effect also indicate significant implications of demographic (age, education and income), social (social category) and economic (access to information, drinking water and wealth) characteristics of rural households on adoption of green toilets. The findings of our study corroborate with earlier studies to a certain extent, which have partially assessed in a different geographical context. Adewara et al. (2018) concluded that age enhances the awareness on health and improves the financial capacity of people, which facilitates the adoption of improved toilets. However, in contrast, Onyeabor and Umeh (2019) found an inverse relationship of age with access to an improved toilet. Further, rural households where the family members are educated adopt green toilets more due to their enhanced understanding of well-being, health-related knowledge, and potential risks associated with open defecation (Rahut et al., 2015; Agbadi, 2019). For income, our finding also aligns with earlier studies which have argued that the rural poor cannot afford the construction and maintenance of improved toilets (Routray et al., 2015). Novotný et al. (2018) expressed that material wealth is essential for adopting the toilet. While, O'Reilly et al. (2014) argued that an increase in income is likely to put social pressure to build improved toilets in the house.

Further, our analysis indicates that socially upper-class households adopt green toilets more, as people who belong to the upper castes have relatively better access to resources and basic amenities, including green toilets. Similarly, rural households having access to information are more likely to adopt green toilets. Bakhsh et al. (2020) expressed that better-informed people are well aware of their well-being and adopt improved services for enhancing the quality of life. Further, Kumar and Mishra (2016) found that awareness directly impacts the adoption of toilets in rural areas. Jenkins and Scott (2007) highlighted that lack of information is one of the reasons for low level of toilet adoption. Further, green toilets are adopted comparatively more in rural households having better availability of water supply, which is essentially needed to clean and operationalize the toilet properly.

6 Conclusion and policy implications

The provision of sanitation and hygiene among rural population has been an area of concern in most of the develo** countries. Eradication of open defecation (OD) has not only been taken as an issue of environment, health and hygiene but also to be against the dignity of human life, which is especially critical for females. A number of initiatives have been undertaken to push the construction and use of toilets in rural areas across the countries. However, the time has now come to evaluate the determinants of using sustainable toilets for ensuring cleanliness and environmental sustainability. This paper analyzes the determinants of green toilet adoption among rural households in three major states of India i.e., Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. Our analysis indicates that 42.4 percent rural households have reported having no toilet facility at home, about 36.2 percent have reported having access to green toilets with proper effluent discharge systems as per environmental norms and 21.4 percent households have reported having toilet facility without proper sewage management system. The intensity of non-availability of toilets varies across states, whereby the highest percentage of non-availability of toilets has been reported from Bihar (53.8), followed by Uttar Pradesh (35.7%) and Madhya Pradesh (35.5%).

Further, the analysis shows that green toilet adoption is significantly associated with the socio-economic profiles of the households and the locations. About 41.4 percent of rural households in Uttar Pradesh have reported having green toilets, followed by Bihar (34.9%) and Madhya Pradesh (33.5%). Age, education and income have also shown significant association with the adoption of green toilets. The analysis indicates that higher age, higher education, and higher income are significantly associated with green toilet adoption among rural households. Finally, the results of marginal effect indicate that rural households with higher age, education above 5th standard, higher household income, higher social category, access to information, access to drinking water and other assets are more likely to adopt green toilets.

There are several practical and theoretical implications of this study. This study provides a few important practical policy implications for promoting green toilets among rural households in India. Firstly, access to green toilets varies geographically, as evident from the state-level analysis, which necessitates the need to devise state-specific interventions to sensitize the rural population toward using proper sanitation, health, and hygiene facilities. Secondly, socioeconomic characteristics are significantly associated with adopting green toilets, which need to be considered in effectively targeting the beneficiaries of sanitation-related schemes. Finally, demographic, social and economic characteristics as significant determinants of green toilet adoption provide insights for develo** strategies for promoting the adoption of green toilets among rural communities with inclusiveness.

This study also provides few important theoretical insights and motivates for future research. The access to toilet and its determinants has been analyzed across the world considering a variety of factors (Adhikari & Ghimire, 2020; Augsburg & Rodríguez-Lesmes, 2020; Kuang et al., 2020; Sinha et al., 2017). However, majority of the studies have considered both urban and rural population together. As the nature and magnitude of rural households in terms of open defecation and access to toilets is different from the urban population, it is imperative to assess the implications of demographic, social and economic factors of rural households while identifying the determinants of green toilet adoption. Our study generates a theoretical model that is grounded in the large survey data, while modeling the determinants of green toilets adoption among the rural households. Results confirm the relevance of demographic, social and economic factors in promoting green toilet faculties in rural areas with improved disposal of waste to prevent the rural population from environmental hazards and disease outbreaks. Our findings also provide valuable insights on critical determinants in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of the United Nations by promoting green toilet facilities among rural households in India.

Though, this study is based on a comprehensive survey conducted by the World Bank to provide timely policy inputs during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some limitations related to the nature and coverage of data collected during the pandemic from the 3 states of India. This study also lacks temporal analysis to assess the change in the adoption of green toilets among rural families over time. Due to the paucity of data, this study only captures the implications of demographic, social and economic variables of the households. Other socioeconomic and behavioral factors may likely influence the adoption of green toilets. As research on the green toilet is in the preliminary stage in low-income countries, this study may be considered as a novel study for understanding the determinants of green toilet adoption. Therefore, this study provides direction for future research focusing on identifying the psychographic variables that may likely affect green toilet adoption using advanced data analysis techniques.