It's about time, period

As schools warily begin to resume offline classes, maintenance and disinfection of school toilets can no longer be a low-priority area

- SNEHA BHURA

In his first Independence Day speech as prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi promised to build toilets in all schools across India. This ambitious target was to be achieved in a year, especially to reduce the dropout rate of girl students. Slogans like ‘toilets before temples’ had become the buzzword.

Seven years on, the figures on toilets built is not all too disappointing, as per the fact sheet presented in Parliament in July in response to a query on water and sanitation facilities in schools. In 2019-2020, 9,88,293 of 10,32,569 government schools listed across states and Union territories (including Ladakh) had separate toilets for women and 10,01,788 had drinking water facilities.

But the standard for school sanitation should always be judged on the metrics of usability and functionality of toilets for adolescent schoolgirls. Experts underline the crying need to maintain school toilets, especially with schools reopening amid fears of a third wave engulfing the under-18 cohort. Prevention of Covid-19 and other transmissible diseases in schools needs more than masks, sanitisers and social distancing. Essentials—like soap, steady water supply, drinking water, cleaning staff, separate urinals, disposal of solid and liquid waste, ramps, handrails and wide doors for children with special needs—can no longer be glossed over.

“In terms of sanitation infrastructure, schools in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are standouts,” says Raman V.R., head of policy at WaterAid India. “In Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the role of panchayats is better.” It is the unrecognised, unaided private schools that always slip through the cracks, he says. They offer minimal infrastructure and are more problematic than government schools.