Bengaluru: One of the major problems faced by students in government primary schools is the lack of separate toilets for girls, and many don’t have toilets at all, according to a study. In many schools, which have the above facilities, they lack hygiene and are poorly maintained.
According to the District Information System for Education (DISE) for the academic year 2015-16, a total of 280 schools do not even have boys’ toilets, while 115 schools lack separate toilets for girls. Interestingly, according to the data, all the schools have drinking water facilities.
According to activists and officials from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), even though compared to the total number of schools (21,654) these numbers may appear small, the actual situation is far worse.
“This is just raw data. In many schools hundreds of students have only 4-5 urinals and 3-4 toilets for boys as well as girls. They need to wait in queues. The situation is further worsened by lack of hygiene caused by poor water connections and indifferent maintenance. Often these toilet-related problems lead to a high dropout rate among girl students,” said a senior officer from the DPI.
A heated debate is going on about the closure of government school due to lack of students. But the poor condition of the toilets points to the sorry state of affairs in government schools. In comparison, the majority of the private schools have better facilities. That is why parents and students opt for them, the officer added.
However, thanks to private companies and state-owned public sector companies many schools, which did not have separate toilets for boys and girl students now have them.
“As per the MHRD report card, all the schools in the state have toilet facilities. But we need to wait for this year’s DISE report,” explained another officer.
Biocon initiative
As part of Biocon foundation's 'Right to Sanitation' project across communities, two toilet facility units in Anekal Higher Primary School, Anekal Town, were inaugurated on Wednesday.
Each facility consists of 12 urinals and 2 toilets for boys and the second unit has 14 toilets for girls along with wash basins in the respective units, which would cater to 326 students.
The toilet blocks have messages on hand washing, oral hygiene, personal and environmental health and waste disposal mechanisms.The new sanitation facility was inaugurated by Ashwath Narayan, president, municipal corporation, Anekal. Ramamurthy, Block Education Officer, Anekal and Rani Desai, Head of Biocon Foundation, were present.
