Identifying and supporting vulnerable people in community-led total sanitation: a Bangladesh case study

Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has been hailed as a revolutionary process for improving sanitation in low income countries, particularly in Bangladesh where it has had significant impact. Several recent studies, however, have raised concerns that the poorest and most marginalised members of the community are often neglected and/or unable to participate, and in some cases are disadvantaged by CLTS programmes. This paper describes a study that sought to explore the experiences of vulnerable people in three CLTS communities in Bangladesh. Amongst other findings, the study indicates that well-being ranking using community identified criterion should be practised when identifying a CLTS community’s vulnerable members, vulnerable people strongly believe in the power of CLTS to improve their livelihoods and in the importance of their participation in CLTS activities, vulnerable people are motivated to move up the sanitation ladder and most households have made improvements to their latrine, and the installation of toilet seats on latrines to aid disabled people has in some cases decreased the sanitation independence of other household members.