Civil society organisation CACl Odisha on Friday moved the Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) to file a case against the School and Mass Education Department for not streamlining measures for functioning of toilets, playgrounds and libraries in Government schools in the State, which are mandatory.
In a memorandum to the OSCPCR Chairperson, the CACl Odisha stated that out of the 76 per cent of schools operated by the State Government, half of the schools don’t have usable toilet facilities for girl students.
But it is quite a visible phenomenon in most of the schools half of the toilets are locked by teachers’, disallowing the access of students for whom those are actually meant for, the CACl stated.
Again it has been noticed that in a majority of schools, the sanitary infrastructures though not locked, have gone dysfunctional or are in a dilapidated and unhygienic condition. It is a dismal statistics that nearly 24 per cent of schools in the State still lack minimum sanitary facilities as on date, which is a gross-violation of Sarba Sikshya Abhijan (SSA) norms. The toilets should be made functional immediately, demanded CACl State covenor Sudhir Sabat
Besides, infrastructure like library and playgrounds should be developed in the schools statewide, demanded Sabat.