Amita Bhakta
Hidden WASH

Welcome to my website. I am a consultant and researcher in urban water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and wider urban infrastructure planning. I am a specialist in ASH in India, focussing on how services can be planned for and delivered to address the needs of different communities. My work focuses on how urban WASH in India and the wider South Asian region can support populations in expanding towns and cities through an urban planning lens. I specialise in ensuring that the rights of hidden groups across the sanitation service chain to urban infrastructure, including sanitation workers who are often marginalised by caste and occupation, can be realised. My work spans across states including Gujarat and Odisha, and wider national policy contexts across India.

Different components of urban services and infrastructure, if planned and designed to support hidden groups with hidden needs, can come together to create inclusive and liveable cities. To achieve WASH for all and ensure that we leave no one behind in growing urban areas in a changing climate, I can support you to address blind spots in urban infrastructure planning, working with users, service providers engaged in marginalised labour, and those at different levels of decision making, looking at  intersections with gender, caste, religion, and other contextual factors. I am also a co-lead of the leave no one behind theme at the Rural Water Supply Network.

Cities are home to marginalised populations who deliver and use WASH services in different ways.

Urban populations rely on different types of infrastructure to live well.

People engaged in marginalised and often hazardous labour are critical to ensuring cities function.

Latest from my blog

Blog

The Orange Effect: Reflections from the Marmalade Festival 2026, Oxford

The Marmalade Festival connects people from around the world, using global/local, strategic/grassroots perspectives, with a[…]

Blog

Inclusive eCooking and Disability: Rethinking Access, Agency and Energy Justice

This study reveals how eCooking for people with disabilities is fundamentally shaped by access, agency,[…]

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