Exponential* Growth in Toilet Ownership in Karnataka

How rural sanitation has improved in Karnataka's districts and taluks between 2001 and 2011. The graph shows that there is a strong link between the magnitude of a district or a taluk's improvement in the last decade to its starting position in 2001. While not conclusive, this is evidence for a possible peer effect in adoption of toilets in rural areas
How rural sanitation has improved in Karnataka’s districts and taluks between 2001 and 2011. The graph shows that there is a strong link between the magnitude of a district or a taluk’s improvement in the last decade to its starting position in 2001. While not conclusive, this is evidence for a possible peer effect in adoption of toilets in rural areas

Contributed by Pavan Srinath

Cross-posted on Catalyst, with more detailed analysis.

* Time for some wonkish gyaan. People normally tend to describe any superlinear growth as “exponential”. However, that is incorrect. Exponential growth is one that follows a particular formula, like this one.

Here, we see that the growth in toilets in a particular time period is proportional to the number of toilets at the beginning of the time period. So the growth of toilets can be described by the following equation, which as you can see represents exponential growth.

Change in number of toilets is proportional to initial number of toilets, thus representing exponential growth
Change in number of toilets is proportional to initial number of toilets, thus representing exponential growth

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