Equity in School Water and Sanitation

EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATIONTable 10 Status of midday meal in sample schoolsFood being cooked inclean and hygienic mannerChildren help in cookingfoodChildren help in servingfoodChildren sit together, inrows**All children eatChildren wash handsbefore mealsVillage head supports/supervises qualityLalitpurN=10*6125665MirzapurN=9*71–5767Remarks Lalitpur1 PS and 1 UPS food beingcooked next to the toilet.Girls (1 UPS) not a prevalentpracticeGirls (UPS)Children not eating in school in 1school; Rows, gendersegregated in UPS.5 UPS children not eating MDM,complain about quality of foodWater not available in someschoolsSome want to increase numberof children eating MDMRemarks MirzapurChildren’s Forum in one UPS(MS3) monitoring cookingIn UPS girls make tea etc. for theteachersNot a prevalent practiceGender-based groups in UPS,girl with disability eating aloneComplaints about quality of food;in 1PS cook throwing food onchildren, calling them nameswhile serving the foodIn 2 large schools, washingfacilities/water inadequateProactive in Nirmal Gram* No MDM was served in the high school, GIC, secondary schools and in 1 UPS** When children are not seated in rows, they sit with friends and in some instances friendships may not transcend castechildren took the meal home, as there was nowater in the school to wash their plates. Similarly,in another school (LS5 UPS), children took thefood in their plates and threw it outside the window,saying it was badly cooked and had worms. Theboys were particularly aware of maintaining a castehierarchy amongst themselves. The girls were alsowary of using water from the school hand pumpas SC and ST children also used it. Some of thembrought water for themselves and their teachersfrom the hand pump situated just outside theschool. Some children from the neighbouringvillages were seen carrying their lunch boxes fromhome. Thakur and Brahmin children from thesame village went home for lunch. In LS3 PS, allchildren carried their own water bottles; when theMDM was served, SC/ST children were seenhuddled together during the meal. Children frommigrant families supplemented the meal with roti(flat Indian bread) brought from home. In twoschools, girls served the food while in the otherschools the cooks served the food. Gendersegregated seating at meal times was seen inmost of the schools.Children were observed washing their handsbefore the meal in most of the schools. In twoschools, children were observed washing theirplates before the meal was served. Handwashingwith soap before meals was not a prevalentpractice in any of the schools, except in MS1 PS.The MS3 PS children had a covered dining shedwith cement and tile tables and benches for thechildren to have their meal; the area was cleanedboth before and after the meal by the children. Intwo other schools, children were seen cleaningthe dining area and spreading mats for sittingbefore the meal was served, and cleaning it afterthe lunch was over. In two other schools (LS2 PSand LS6 UPS) food was being cooked just outsidethe toilets. Stray dogs were seen hanging aroundeither in the school or just outside the gate inalmost all the sample schools serving MDM.Forward caste teachers did not attempt to breakcaste barriers among themselves or with thechildren. This was evident in five schools inLalitpur. The teachers did not share their meals oreven taste the meals cooked in the schools. Someof them did not even accept water from lower castechildren (see Box 4). Such attitudes on the part ofthe teachers perpetuate social practices insteadof eliminating them. Children, on the other hand,had evolved their own ways of dealing with this intheir relationships with their classmates andfriends. Children from forward and backward castecommunities reported that they shared their mealwith Dalit and Muslim friends, but did not tell theirparents and grandparents about it. Many childrensaid that friendship was important and they26