50 million Indian children lack sanitation services in schools: WHO-UNICEF report

Nearly one in five children globally without access to sanitation services at school in 2025 were in India, with 50 million Indian children lacking such services, according to a WHO-UNICEF report released on Monday.

The WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report, titled "Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools 2015-2025", said 244 million children worldwide did not have sanitation services at their schools last year.

India accounted for 50 million of them, followed by Nigeria with 34 million, Ethiopia with 26 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 11 million and Indonesia with 8 million.

Despite the large number, India recorded a 14 per cent reduction in the number of schools without sanitation services during the period assessed, the report said.

For SDG monitoring, a basic sanitation service means schools have improved sanitation facilities that are single-sex, usable and available to students.

The report said hygiene remained another area of concern in India, with around 20 million children lacking hygiene services at school.

However, insufficient recent data meant the JMP could not generate hygiene coverage estimates for India and the Central and Southern Asia region beyond 2024.

India performed comparatively better on access to drinking water, with around 12 million children lacking drinking-water services at school in 2025. This accounted for roughly one in every 20 children globally without such services.

India is among 28 of 62 countries considered on track to achieve universal basic drinking-water coverage in schools by 2030. Its basic drinking-water coverage increased by more than 4 per cent annually during the period assessed, the report said.

A basic drinking-water service is defined as access to a functioning improved water source, while a basic hygiene service requires handwashing facilities with soap and water available at the time of the survey.

The JMP, a joint initiative of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene and monitors global progress towards related Sustainable Development Goal targets.

The 2030 Agenda includes goals on both education and water and sanitation. Sustainable Development Goal 4 calls for inclusive and quality education and safe, effective learning environments, including child-, disability- and gender-sensitive facilities and basic WASH services.

SDG 6 seeks universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

With only five years remaining until the end of the SDG period, the world is not on track to achieve universal basic WASH services in schools by 2030, the report said.

It said the current rate of progress would need to increase fourfold for basic drinking water, fivefold for basic sanitation and fourfold for basic hygiene to achieve universal coverage by 2030.

Based on current trajectories, about 84 per cent of schools will have basic water services, 81 per cent basic sanitation services and 79 per cent basic hygiene services by 2030.

At the end of the SDG period, the report projected that 10 per cent of schools would still have no water service, 7 per cent no sanitation service and 12 per cent no hygiene service.