Equity in School Water and Sanitation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATIONNeeds of adolescent girls not addressed: Theneeds of school-going adolescent girls are notaddressed in upper primary schools, high schoolsand secondary schools. As it stands today, thegovernment has not paid much attention to inschoolbarriers to participation of adolescent girls.This is one area where a lot of work needs to bedone.Children’s forums that exist are notempowered: This is an important learning fromthis study. While primary schools have BalPanchayats, we found that high schools and highersecondary schools do not have democratic forumsto enable students to participate in the governanceof the school. Even where children’s forums doexist they are assigned duties and in someinstances their work burden has gone up.The technical note on inclusive approach for SSHEclearly states that the programme aims at ensuringthat children learn and practise good hygienehabits and regular and correct use of facilities (GoIand UNICEF, 2008). They need to be ‘involved’ inthe operation and maintenance of the facilities(including toilets). However, realities from the fieldshow that involving children in the operation andmaintenance of the facilities is interpreted to meanthat they take the entire responsibility forcleanliness. Undoubtedly they can help to supportand maintain the facilities, but they should notshoulder the full burden of cleaning and washing(especially when the toilet is being used byteachers or members of the community). If we areserious about child rights, should we not draw aline? Within the overall framework of childprotection and participation, is it fair to overloadthe children?Attitudes and beliefs: Another important learningis that exclusion manifests itself in different forms,namely exclusion/inclusion based on: social group and community (Dalits, Sahariya[ST] and OBC) economic status of students (not well dressed,dirty clothes, do not bathe) performance in the school (good in studies/notgood in studies; regular/irregular) visible disabilities, infectious diseases (scabies,bad cough) gender (differential duties assigned to boys andgirls).The attitudes and beliefs of teachers are importantin the school. Their prejudices against poorchildren and against specific social groupsaccentuate discrimination in the school. Equally,where teachers have a positive and inclusiveattitude, the school environment is positive. Asdiscussed in the preceding sections, the agencyof the headteacher and teachers in the school,the village pradhan and other importantstakeholders makes a big difference in the schooland in the community. Equally, the situation in thevillage and the community in which the school isembedded is also very important. The contrastbetween Mirzapur and Lalitpur shows that it isimportant to work in the community and in theschool.In many ways the school is a microcosm of thesociety in which it is embedded. But we also sawthat dynamic leaders in schools and in thecommunity can make a difference. However, forthe change to sustain, the immediate environment(village or Panchayat) needs to be supportive andappreciative, leading to a positive spiral of change.Agency of local government and community:MDM in school is one of the positive policyinitiatives in India. Here again, the contrastbetween Mirzapur and Lalitpur is palpable. Whilefood is being cooked and served in both thedistricts, the quality varies across schools andhinges on the interest taken by village leaders andteachers. We saw that caste dynamics are farmore pronounced in Lalitpur than in Mirzapur. Thereason for this is not different from that for thesanitation arena – a more inclusive and positivesocial environment leads to more inclusivepractices in the school and vice-versa.Change is possible: An important learning fromthis study is that change is possible. A school levelinitiative that takes off from the fundamental right(see Box 7) to equality can indeed educate childrenabout discrimination and also about the right ofchildren to education, protection and care. Whatwas missing in the entire programme of schoolsanitation is the language of rights. PerhapsUNICEF, with its global mandate of child rights,could make a difference in this area. Therecommendations in the following chapter aremade keeping this UNICEF mandate inperspective.32
Overcoming Exclusion and Discrimination in South AsiaIndia Country Report5Conclusions and Recommendationsfor the India StudyAttitudes, beliefs, and practicesneed to be addressed in asustained mannerSocial transformation starts with a desire tochange. Teachers, community leaders andadministrators play an important role: they lead,they influence, and they sustain change. Duringthe 1990s and right up to 2003 the Governmentof India gave importance to changing attitudestowards gender relations. Under the DistrictPrimary Education Programme (DPEP) gendertraining became mandatory. Unfortunately themomentum was not sustained after 2003 whenSSA was introduced. A number of studies carriedout towards the end of the DPEP programme andthe beginning of SSA pointed out the need to worktowards changing the attitudes of teachers andeducational administrators towards both genderand social exclusion issues. The presence ofcaste/community biases, neglect of children fromvery poor households and communities, andcontinuation of discriminatory practices towardschildren with special needs have been highlightedat periodic intervals (Jha and Jhingran, 2005;Ramachandran, 2004).Water, sanitation andeducation: restoring thebalanceWorkload of children: Workload of boys and girlsis a sensitive issue in schools. Children from poorfamilies work before they come to school; girlsput in several hours of housework and boys takethe cattle to graze. When they reach the schoolthey are expected to sweep and clean as soon asthey arrive in the morning. If we analyse thissituation from a child rights perspective then wecan argue that the workload of children coming togovernment schools is high. It was indeed heartwrenchingto see young boys and girls who cameneat and tidy to school being covered with dustand dirt, wet and shivering in the cold with nofacilities to wash and clean up after their morningduties. This sends out the wrong message to thechildren and their families. Many childrencomplained of itchy eyes and running noses, clearsymptoms of dust allergy. We noticed that inseveral schools the children who cleaned had tomiss the morning prayer.If we have to educate children on water andsanitation then we cannot expect the children totake the entire responsibility of cleanliness; theycan help, support and maintain, but they cannotshoulder the full burden of cleaning and washing.The issue of children taking full responsibility forcleaning needs to be looked at within the overallframework of child protection and participation. Itis important not to confuse training children in theuse of healthy sanitary practices with overloadingthem with the work of cleaning school toilets. Thisis particularly worrisome when the childrenthemselves are not allowed to use the toilets andthese facilities are meant only for the teachers. Inone school the children were asked to clean upafter the school premises were given out formarriages and other social events. They had towork in choked toilets and on filthy school grounds.Coordination: One of the disturbing aspects ofthe school sanitation programme is that there isobvious lack of coordination among departments;their perspectives and priorities are also different.Those enthusiastic about water and sanitationrarely view the issue from the children’sperspective. Several administrators and teacherswe spoke to admitted that there is a lot of pressureon them to demonstrate a successful schoolsanitation programme and they translate ‘success’to mean children’s involvement in cleaning. A lotof time and energy goes into beautifying and33
Page 1: EQUITY IN SCHOOLWATER AND SANITATIO
Page 4 and 5: Cover Photo: © UNICEF/India/Sanjay
Page 6 and 7: EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATI
Page 96: EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATI

Equity in School Water and Sanitation

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?