Swachh Vidyalaya success crucial

Boys walk a long way off the school campus to relieve themselves. Girls use dirty toilets with no running water. Students bring drinking water from their homes, but end up using them in toilets and remain thirsty all day.

Until very recently, this was the case in one of Bengaluru’s government schools with over 1,000 enrolled students — and has been so, for over the past 20 years. The city has been recognised as the cleanest capital city under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), ranked number one in terms of reduced extent of open defecation and improved solid waste management.

Karnataka also boasts being home to four out of the top 10 cleanest Indian cities, according to the Ministry of Urban Development. The state ranks as the best in the country when it comes to the functionality of separate girls toilets in schools, with 99.94 per cent. These are indeed remarkable figures, but things in the rest of the country are far from rosy.

According to a UNICEF working paper released earlier this year, a global analysis of the sanitation coverage in schools shows that India at 53 per cent, lagged behind its neighbours Bangladesh (60), Pakistan (63), Nepal (68) and Sri Lanka (82).

Apart from the 7,60,000 children that diarrhoea kills each year, it also hampers education of the rest – every year, 272 million school days are lost because of the illness. A study in Bangla-desh, Bhutan, India and Nepal noted that the number of school days missed during menstruation varied from three to four to as many as seven days a month.

It is precisely to address this concern of sanitation in schools, that the Swachh Vidyalaya initiative was launched under SBM last year to ensure every school has a set of functioning and well-maintained water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

According to the government, the target of Swachh Vidyalaya mission has already been achieved. However, the Unified District Information System for Education report says that only 31 per cent of girls’ toilets and 27 per cent of boys’ toilets have water available for flushing and cleaning.

Poor operation and maintenance of these facilities end up impeding sustained coverage, resulting in loss of investments on political, monetary and developmental fronts. For instance, lack of dedicated funds for operation and maintenance, weak management and poor water availability inside toilets contribute to dysfunctional, unusable toilets.

Arguments linger over the accuracy of the data presented under Swachh Vidyalaya, the capacity of state governments to allocate enough funds, unfulfilled commitments by PSUs and corporates, and question marks that loom over the functionality of the built toilets in the long run.

Separate toilets
The financial dimensions of such an ambitious project as SBM would naturally be huge. To meet the standards laid by the much-hailed Right To Education Act, 2009, for water and sanitation in schools, it is estimated that the country would need $375 million, according to the PAISA report, 2010. The Act entitles children in schools to a barrier-free access, separate toilets for boys and girls, safe and adequate drinking water facility for all children.

One of the major concerns regarding funds is the decentralisation of the Central government funds and entrusting  state governments with the massive responsibility. Secondly, the unfulfilled commitments of the PSUs and the corporate sector (as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility Act) to support building of toilets in schools is a cause for worry.

In spite of Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing to the parliamentarians in his independence day speech last year to utilise their LAD (Local Area Development) funds for constructing toilets in schools, a whopping Rs 5,093.16 crore still lies unspent under the MPLAD scheme. Had it been used, it would have certainly eased the financial strain on the state governments, and ensured Swachh Vidyalayas across the country.

It is not just about the allocation of money though. The SBM envisions the participation of teachers, people’s representatives, children, PSUs, Corporate, CSOs, children and most importantly, the School Management Committees (SMCs). Strengthening of the SMCs is decisive not only for addressing sanitation requirements of every school, but also for monitoring smooth functioning of the school, preparing and recommending school development plans, and other functions for ensuring that children stay in school. 

With another World Toilet Day having gone by, India needs to revisit its priorities, to realise the objective of a truly ‘Swachh Bharat.’ The way ahead is long and tough, but then India could not have asked for a better start. 

(The writer handles policy research at World Vision India)