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.
Ruhi Saith is a medical doctor from India, with a PhD in Medicine from Oxford University and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
She works in Public Health, including broader determinants of health like nutrition and WASH. She has more than 20 years experience in the development sector, having worked on a range of health projects in the South Asia region, especially in India with some experience in East Africa. She has expertise in overseeing health evaluations as well as participating in a number of programmes related to health systems strengthening. Sub-sectors in health that she has experience of include, maternal and child health, reproductive health and primary health care, and immunisation. In the context of COVID, she is currently involved in looking at the need to mainstream strategies for vaccine demand generation (including for vaccine hesitancy as in the case of COVID)
She has worked in the erstwhile Planning Commission of the Government of India and was also Head of Research Programmes at the Public Health Foundation of India. She has served as developing countries editorial consultant for the Cochrane Public Health Review Group and has co-authored two Cochrane systematic reviews.
Reproductive health
Cochrane systematic reviews
This study tests the impact of a behaviourally-informed intervention in increasing toilet use amongst toilet-owning households in rural Bihar.
This project aims to improve health outcomes by strengthening the existing participation of the community.
Evaluating public private partnerships' delivery of family planning and reproductive health services
Evaluating the impact of the Norway-India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) Phase II
We analysed the current status of interventions (in four countries in the European and Central Asian region) for the generation of demand for vaccines and identified gaps. Our study made recommendations towards mainstreaming interventions in government policies and budgets, so as to ensure sustainability.
The project monitors innovative approaches to build water security in four communities in India and Pakistan.
On World Toilet Day we reflect on the progress made towards universal toilet use in India and explore how to overcome the challenges ahead.
Fear, lack of information, and adherence to social and cultural beliefs are just some of the causes of vaccine hesitancy - so how can governments and policymakers overcome these factors?