More than 120 members of 15 citizen groups, named Sanitation Task Force and mostly consisting of women of Khallikote, Purusottampur, Chatrapur and Kabisuryanagar blocks, have written to the Chief Minister and the Education Minister to improve the sanitation facilities in schools in Ganjam district.
Before the re-opening of schools on Tuesday after the summer vacation the women members visited the schools and verified the sanitation situation. They oversaw functional toilets, separate toilet and urinals for girls, water supply to the toilets, hand washing facilities, supply of toiletries, management of garbage, menstrual hygiene facilities and operation and maintenance of toilets in their respective villages.
They found most of the schools toilets are not clean, no water supply, no menstrual facilities for girls, no hand washing facilities and no supply of toiletries, overall the toilets are not cleaned and maintained regularly. The SMC members and staffs are not giving any priority for the better availability and maintenance of toilet facilities in schools in the district.
A city-based NGO Youth for Social Development recently assessed the condition of school sanitation through the use of citizen report card and physically verified schools toilets and found there are availability of toilets but children are not allowed to use those and found existence of discrimination; poor menstrual facilities with less than 25 per cent schools have soap, changing space and disposal bins; only 52 per cent Primary Schools and 34 per cent Upper Primary Schools have hand washing facilities; only 50 per cent schools have facilities for CWSN; only 57 per cent have IEC activities on sanitation behaviour and practice; only in 58 schools SMC members discuss on sanitation issues; schools staffs are very much dissatisfied with the sanitation facilities and in overall satisfaction is low in case of households.