Shortage of water hurts adolescent girl students’ health at Govt institutions

ADILABAD: The acute shortage of water is seriously hurting the health of adolescent girl students at the government residential schools and colleges in the Adilabad district. Protests were staged by some 200 students at the Telangana ST Gurukula School for Girl students in this context.

The school is run for the students of Class V to intermediate and has a strength of over 500.

The school of Indravelli is now being run in a private building at Mavala of Adilabad. Girl students say they are facing ‘health problems’ since they were unable to take regular bath. Some among them could take bath only once a week due to water shortage in the hostel.

One inmate said many students were facing health problems like itching and the like since they were not taking bath regularly.

They say that even during their monthly periods, they were starved of water for wash and clean. The school principal and vice-principal have failed to be of any help.

They urged district officials provide adequate water to them at their residential school at Mavala gram panchayat.

When the students held a protest, the principal and vice-principal threatened them with issuing of transfer certificates (TCs) to them.

A girl in the hostel said poor quality food is being served to them and they often found insects in the meals.  “But, the school authority said they were cumin seeds  (Jeela Karra), not the insects when we brought the problem to their notice,” she said.

The same is the case with many government residential schools and colleges for boys and girls. The inmates are facing an acute shortage of water. Boys are bringing water from nearby borewells for bath and ablutions, but girls students can’t go outside.

Bore wells are not working properly also due to the depletion of the groundwater table due to the soaring temperatures. In some hostels, the staff hire water cans for cooking food and for other essential requirements.