The noisome subject of school toilets has moved stealthily up the political and development agenda, with increasing realisation that hygiene is as important to effective education as nutrition and teaching standards.

The lack of priority given to these basic amenities, is seen by many children as an indication of the lack of priority — and respect — given to them by society at large. A shockingly high number of children suffer from the impact and stigmas of bladder and bowel problems that are aggravated by poor school toilets and lack of access. The Delhi Government has started a drive for making the toilets accessible to the girl students in the school premises by providing them proper toilet facilities. In 1,007 government schools around 24,548 toilets are available for the use of students.

The officials of the Education Department said the real challenge is not the number but the lack of maintenance of toilets. The blockage in toilets makes them useless for students whereas as lack of sanitation facilities becomes a stumbling block for the effective spread of education. In order to deal with the poor condition of toilets, the department has set up a time limit of three working days to unblock and unlock all the toilets and make them fully functional by carrying out the necessary repairs.

For this, the Education Department has issued necessary directions to all heads of schools. With this, the heads of schools have started working in the direction of solving the problem of improper maintenance of toilets. It is proven by the fact as the Education Department has received number of proposals for the approval of major repairs and construction of new toilets in the schools after issuance of the order.

“Due to improper maintenance and blockage in toilets girl students have to face the acute problems. They are forced to use unhygienic and unsafe places for toilet. Usually in such circumstances, most girl students exercise bladder control rather than use unhygienic and blocked toilets in schools. The practice of holding back urine not only causes physical discomfort to girl students but also hampers their concentration in the classroom. It is thus, expected that soon when the government schools are reopened after the summer vacations, girl students will witness fully functional toilets ready to use at ease,” said an official.