Government has recognized the need of proper sanitation facility and is clearly stated in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or ‘Education for All’ Programme of Govt. of India that ensuring female literacy requires changes and provision of sanitation facility as one of the factor for retaining female students in schools. Presently there is a gap with respect to toilet facility in schools which needs to be fulfilled.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and International Non Governmental Organisations (iNGOs) are working towards providing access to safe sanitation in schools. However, this requires faster action, CSOs and iNGOs can only develop models the replication for the same will require Government initiatives to take it forward. Ensuring installation of functional toilets is one method to encourage parents to send their children especially girls to school, as well as improve overall health and hygiene of children.

State Government are taking initiatives for constructing toilets in schools but the sanitation problem requires a much wider approach as there is an important component of functionality which is not catered to in the Government schemes. The major issues being toilets constructed under various Government schemes are not maintained by school authorities because of unwillingness of school authority, lack of funds and unavailability of care taker to maintain the structures. Development Alternatives (DA) has addressed the issue of functionality through its experience of working with school authorities and children.

The government schemes address providing access to sanitation services but the behavior change aspects of children and school authorities for usage and maintenance is completely amiss. There is a need to create awareness about sanitation and hygiene among school students and the benefits of using sanitation facilities. School children are at the most appropriate age group for teaching good behaviors and this ensure upkeep and functionality of that the facility.

DA in one of its project in Chennai on providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to 9 schools and communities worked on behavior change aspects. The situational analysis revealed that the schools had toilets but they were not maintained leading them to non-functional state. The objectives were restated and awareness became an integral part of the project leading to conscious and aware students and clean and well maintained toilets.

Each year, government schools get funds for maintenance and most of it is spent on painting with very little or no money is used for maintenance of toilets. The school students if motivated can become maintenance incharge and build pressure on school authorities to maintain toilets on a regular basis. However, one should be very cautious that the children do not end up cleaning the toilets and only ensure its cleanliness and maintenance.

The toilets inside the school premises are not cleaned daily because of non availability of the cleaner or lack of funds to hire a fulltime cleaner. The funding provided to the school should be checked and provision should be made to hire a full time cleaner.

In the same project referred above, few students were selected and ‘Eco-Committees" were formed in schools which included one teacher and nine students. The Committee was responsible for maintenance of these structures with the help of other students. They are also responsible of creating awareness about the need and importance of WATSAN to the students and they are performing their responsibilities dedicatedly.

All the government schools receive funds and during the visit of education department officials they should also inspect the maintenance of the sanitation facilities. If these structures are not properly maintained or locked by the school authorities actions should be taken by the officials of education department towards the school authorities. As lot of school authorities lock the school sanitation facility to escape from its maintenance, this step can help ensure its functionality.

Both aspects of sanitation one being availability of sanitation facility and other of maintenance of sanitation facility are crucial for improving female literacy. Currently, the focus of all government policies is on providing access to sanitation facility and after the directive of Supreme Court the work in this direction has gained momentum. However, 100% schools with toilet for girls will not solve the problem of female literacy, as its the functionality issue should be catered to seriously otherwise the sanitation structure developed will deteriorate in some years and the problem will remain the same.

It is thus required to set sustainable systems in place like including WATSAN in the curriculum, allotting funds for the care takers who can maintain these toilets, supervision by the Education Departments. q