Vol. 8, Issue 1, Part A (2026)

Hygiene and sanitation emerge not merely as biomedical necessities but as social determinants of health, embedded within broader structures of inequality. Access to clean water, adequate nutrition, and opportunities for physical well-being are mediated by social hierarchies, governance systems, and community infrastructures. Existing research illustrates that sanitation practices are deeply entangled with health outcomes, particularly in rural contexts where disparities in water quality, household hygiene, and collective facilities reflect entrenched socio-economic stratifications. From a sociological lens, sanitation functions as a protective social institution, one that regulates the boundary between the private body and the public environment. The World Health Organization’s definition safe disposal of human waste to prevent disease transmission underscores sanitation as a collective safeguard, yet its realization is uneven across social spaces. Policies such as the Swachh Bharat Mission (2014) represent state-led interventions to eliminate open defecation and expand infrastructure. However, the persistence of inequities, especially in urban slums, reveals sanitation as a site of social exclusion: inadequate facilities not only perpetuate disease but also reinforce stigmatization, marginality, and the denial of full citizenship. Thus, sanitation must be understood sociologically as both a material infrastructure and a symbolic marker of belonging. Its absence in marginalized communities reproduces cycles of ill-health and exclusion, while its presence signals inclusion in the promises of modernity, development, and dignity. The abstract therefore situates sanitation at the intersection of health, inequality, and social justice, highlighting how infrastructural deficits translate into lived experiences of vulnerability and marginalization.