UnoUniverse: Sanitation and Hygiene: SCALING UP WITH QUALITY AND CONVERGENCE: Urvashi Prasad

Where schools have sanitation,

attendance is higher; especially for girls."

Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General, United Nations

BACKGROUND:

Schools after the family have a vital role to play for the cognitive, creative and social development of children. Schools are important places to address the health and hygiene issues of children, provided necessary infrastructure is available. Provision of sanitation, safe drinking water facilities & personal health and hygiene education is the key to improved health, learning ability, attendance rate of children.

School sanitation is most often the first introduction to the consistent use of latrines, cleaning toilets and good health and hygiene practices like washing hands before and after meals. Schools are learning laboratories where habits of good sanitation practices, personal health and hygiene can go a long way in inculcating these habits when they become adults. Children are the best change agents who can play an effective role in creating a healthy, clean and active learning environment in schools and also can help to carry these messages back home and motivate their families for improved behaviour.

The importance of water and sanitary facilities for schools is acknowledged. Yet in practice the sanitary situation in many schools in rural India is deplorable. Out of about 1.29 million rural schools 66.84percent have common toilets only 53.60 girls toilets and 87.77 water facility (DISE 2008-09 Flash Statistics). There has been an increase in the number of water and sanitation facilities in schools across the country, but these often face following drawbacks:

· Toilets do not function properly due to lack of water, proper cleaning and maintenance.

· Children are following poor hygiene and handwashing practices.

· Toilets are not adapted to the needs of the children in particular adolescent girls and the disabled.

· Latrines are locked because children are not trusted to use them properly –teachers keep them for personal use only.

· Children specifically girls do not attend school because appropriate and private sanitation facilities are lacking and many of them drop out at puberty.

· Lack of adequate solid and liquid waste disposal arrangements in schools.

Under these conditions, schools and the community environment tend to become unsafe places where a number of water and sanitation related diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis , polio, trachoma and scabies are transmitted. All of these compromise the attendance and performance of children at school and, not uncommonly, may also result in death.

Some Facts on School Water and Sanitation

· There are 1.29 million schools out of which only 87.77 percent have water supply facility, 66.84 percent have common toilets

· Only 53.60 percent have separate toilets for girls (DISE, 2008-2009- Flash Statistics)

Some Consequences

· 5 of the 10 top killer diseases of children aged 1-4 in rural areas are related to water and sanitation

· About 0.6-0.7 million children die of diarrhoea annually, almost 2000 every day.

· Typhoid, dysentery, gastroenteritis, jaundice and malaria claim the lives of over a fifth of the children aged 1-4 in rural areas (Source: Central Bureau of Health Intelligence-MoHFW)

Some Impact

· High infant mortality rate 74 under 5 age group (NFHS-2005-2006)

· Low enrolment rate & high drop rate in particular for girls. 34 % of the girls and 49% of the boys complete school education. (Source: NFHS-3)

School Sanitation – Key to health and Education of Children

· A Study in Alwar, Rajasthan showed school toilets increased enrollment by 11%.

· Statistics show that absenteeism especially among adolescent girls, has decreased in areas where toilets have been provided in schools. (Report in Daily News Analysis, Sunday, Mumbai, edition Nov) 13^th, 2005.

To Be Continued ...