Equity in School Water and Sanitation

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EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATIONon rain for agriculture. It has only 24 per cent ofcultivable land being irrigated by ground water orsurface water sources (CSE website). 12The district is also home to approximately 8,000persons of a primitive tribe known as Sahariya,who are considered among the most marginalizedsocial groups in the country. The UP Governmentrecently recognized this group as an indigenoustribe. Another important feature of this district isthat there is very little presence of civil societygroups working on issues related to gender, socialequity, poverty and rural livelihood. According togovernment data, the district has almost universalavailability of drinking water and toilet facilities inprimary schools. Unfortunately, detailed schoollevel data on infrastructure and facilities is notreadily available for high schools and highersecondary schools (also known as junior colleges).The transition rate from primary to upper primaryis 78.3 per cent, i.e. 21.7 per cent of the studentsdrop out after primary, with more girls droppingout than boys (Mehta, 2007).Mirzapur district, a part of Varanasi division, hasbeen the focus of rural sanitation inputs throughthe Panchayati Raj department, under the state’sTotal Sanitation Campaign. UNICEF has alsosupported the TSC programme here since 2006.This district has received a great deal of attentionfrom the mid-1980s, and a large number of civilsociety organizations and social activists havecampaigned against child labour in the carpetindustry. The International Labour Organization(ILO) has been supporting child labourrehabilitation and education programmes in thedistrict for over 23 years. 13 Being close to Varanasi,a centre for culture and education in the state, therelatively better-off forward caste households haveeither migrated to the city, or have another housein the city. As a result of this out-migration, thevillages are now relatively homogeneous – theresidents are primarily Dalits, Muslims and otherbackward classes (OBC). The carpet industry isthe main source of non-farm employment and withgradual eradication of child labour the wages ofadults have gone up and educational participationhas also improved over the years. The educationalscenario in Mirzapur is quite similar to Lalitpur.The transition rate from primary to upper primaryis only 74.1 per cent, with more girls dropping outthan boys.According to government data, schoolinfrastructure facilities look fairly good in bothdistricts, with a high proportion of schools havingtoilet facilities for boys and girls, as also access tosafe drinking water (see Table 2). Data on theseTable 2 Enrolment and facilities in schools in Lalitpur and Mirzapur districtsLalitpurMirzapurPrimary Upper primary Primary Upper primaryDISE, 2006/07Number of government schoolsNumber of private schoolsEnrolment (government schools)% GirlsTransition rate from primary to upper primary% Schools with pre-primary% Schools with common toilets% Schools with girls' toilets% Schools with drinking water facilities% Schools with no female teacherClass 1-5 Class 6-8 Class 1-5 Class 6-8881180195,26847.928.993.98997.5243041,3624733156,936 355,61540.348.878.3% 74.1%1.743.890.699.48293.194.510028.710.8340147115,23746.83.69888.910056.6Source: Mehta (2007). Elementary Education in India - Where do we stand? District Report Cards (DISE data 2006/07) Vols. I and II. New Delhi12www.cseindia.org/programme/nrml/districtforest.asp?dist=LALITPUR13ERU had documented educational programmes for out-of-school children and erstwhile child workers in 1999/2000. The casestudies were published in 2003 (see Ramachandran, 2003).10
Overcoming Exclusion and Discrimination in South AsiaIndia Country Reportaspects is collected every year at the end ofSeptember through the District Information Systemfor Education (DISE). It is important to note thatthis data is submitted by the headteacher of theschool and is finally compiled and published in NewDelhi. If we take the DISE data over the last 10years, a gradual improvement in infrastructurefacilities is discernible. However, it must be saidthat the data does not tell us whether the toiletsare functional or if the hand pumps are working.An important difference that is evident throughsecondary data is the proportion of women teachers– close to 24 and 29 per cent of the schools (primaryand upper primary respectively) do not have womenteachers in Lalitpur and the proportion of girls atthe upper primary level is 6 percentage points lessthan in Mirzapur. Similarly, in Mirzapur 56.6 per centof upper primary schools do not have a womanteacher. It is now fairly well established that thepresence of women teachers makes a bigdifference to girls’ enrolment at the upper primaryand higher levels where post-pubescent girls mayfeel more secure if there is a woman teacher in theschool (Ramachandran, 1998, 2002).One of the reasons for selecting district Mirzapurfor this study was the presence of a district levelfull-fledged school sanitation programme intandem with the village sanitation programme, runby the Panchayati Raj department (under TSC),with some financial support from UNICEF. Thereis a full-time district consultant and a coordinatorfor TSC, along with motivators 14 for each block.The village pradhan 15 links up with the schools tofacilitate construction of toilets and to arrangepotable water supply. They plan and implementvillage level sanitation programmes, as well aswork towards increasing community awarenessand hygiene education. On the other hand, Lalitpur,also a UNICEF focus district, is still to implementthe convergent programme involving health,education, sanitation and overall childdevelopment.3.2.3 Selection of sitesThe following criteria were developed to select thesample villages.1. Location: Distance from block headquarterswhich could range from 10 to 40 kilometres in orderto be able to study the effects of connectivity orisolation. Selected primary and upper primaryschools were to be located either on the samecampus or be independent, but at least bereasonably close to each other (in the same grampanchayat) so that the variations in types ofschools could be captured (see Table 3).2. Community composition: Selected schoolswould have children from mixed social groups –the forward communities and disadvantaged socialgroups like OBC, SC, Muslims and ST. This wasconsidered essential to capture prevalence ofsocial exclusion, especially with respect to groupsthat were traditionally considered untouchable,polluting or unclean. The team would also explorethe existence of other forms of exclusion linked todiseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis), disability andparental occupations. Non-segregated schools(i.e. those schools which have both boys and girlsfrom different social groups) would be selected inTable 3 Sample sites (villages) and schools in Lalitpur and Mirzapur districtsSite No.123456Jakhora Block, LalitpurLS1 (Normal village): PS + UPSLS3 (Ambedkar Village): PS + UPS (Govt aided)LS6 (Normal village): PS + UPS (WA)LS4 (Nirmal Gram): PS + UPS (WA)LS5 (Normal village): PS (WA) + UPS + Vidya MandirPrivate SchoolLS2 (Ambedkar Village): PS (WA) + LS2 GovernmentInter CollegeRajgarh Block, MirzapurMS1 (Nirmal Gram): PS + UPSMS2 (Nirmal Gram): PS + UPSMS3 (Nirmal Gram): PS + UPSMS4 16 (Ambedkar Village): PS + Janta Inter College -Government aidedMS6 (Nirmal Gram): PS + UPSMS5 (Nirmal Gram) PS + MS5 Inter College - PrivateNote: PS: Primary School; UPS: Upper Primary School; WA: Schools which received WaterAid intervention for sanitation14Block motivators promote construction of toilets in the villages in their block, and work on an incentive plan of the stategovernment.15A pradhan is the elected village headman.16MS4 is on the border of Rajgarh and Narayanpur blocks.11
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