On the World Toilet Day on Friday, a Red Dot campaign was organised under which children marked their school premises in red colour, symbolically to highlight where they do not have access to a toilet in their schools.The campaign also aimed at drawing the Government's attention to the fact that toilets – and the sanitation systems in schools that support them – are dysfunctional, unavailable or poorly managed in rural Odisha.
A study conducted jointly by Atmashakti Trust and its allies Odisha Shramajeebee Mancha and Mahila Shramajeebee Mancha, Odisha, with a sample of 10,043 Government-run schools across 82 blocks of 18 districts of the State reveals that Odisha’s performance in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention is not that impressive as 3,438 schools (34.34%) did not have drinking water facilities. The information shared by the School and Education Minister also reveals that 34,394 (more than 50%) Government-run schools have no drinking water facilities.
A lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in a school directly impacts and determines if a child will attend school. But unfortunately, many of the rural areas do not have access to schools with washrooms or drinking water.
Hygiene and school enrolment are directly proportional. And there is growing evidence that the lack of a toilet in school can push children to the periphery of education, said the findings of the study, underlining the crying need to maintain school toilets in the State.
The absence of a functional toilet is a key peril in Odisha schools. The study report informed that 30.77% of schools in the surveyed districts lack usable toilet facilities.
“As school reopens, the Government needs to prioritise building and upkeeping school toilets to attract girls to be back to schools. After all, a toilet for girls is a more dignified aspect than a facility,” said Atmashakti Trust executive trustee Ruchi Kashyap.