Equity in School Water and Sanitation

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EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATIONand orientation of administrators, teachers,Panchayat leaders and school managementcommittees. Good practice case studies needto be disseminated; stories of schools, rolemodels among teachers, principals andchildren have to be written and made availableto all schools; and special awards could begiven to schools that demonstrate inclusion andequality in all facets of the life of the school (inthe classroom, in extra-curricular activities, andeven in maintaining facilities).Budget for maintenance and retro-fitting:In view of the findings that a large number oftoilets are in a state of disrepair and that thedesign itself is a problem in some cases, it isimportant to acknowledge that whilegovernment budgets provide for constructionof new toilets, washing/painting and minorrepairs, there is no budget for retro-fitting. It is,therefore, recommended that SSHE and otherWATSAN programmes consider the inclusionof funds for retro-fitting.Needs of adolescent girls need urgentattention: The specific needs of adolescentgirls in school need to be addressed withsensitivity. Again, as a first step, UNICEF couldorganize school-level workshops with girls inClasses 6 to 10 to develop a friendly and usabletoilet complex. This could easily be done underthe aegis of the government’s girls’ educationprogrammes NPEGEL and KGBV. These twospecial programmes seek to address theeducational needs of girls at the upper primarylevel (Classes 6 to 8). Equally, the proposedsecondary education mission of thegovernment also provides a good opportunityto try out new strategies and come up withworkable ideas to improve the overall schoolingexperience of adolescent girls.Promise of changeThe silver lining that came through clearly duringthis study is that winds of change are indeedblowing in Uttar Pradesh. To begin with, the politicalclimate in the state, and indeed in most parts ofIndia, is favourable and social inclusion/exclusionissues are being addressed in almost all walks oflife. The government has taken positive steps andas a result awareness levels in society haveincreased. The contrast between the good casestudy and the one where things have gone wrongthrows up some valuable lessons. An activecampaign in the community and in the village canset in motion a momentum for change. Schoolsdo not stand alone and a school sanitationprogramme needs to be embedded in the schooland the community.36
6Overcoming Exclusion and Discrimination in South AsiaIndia Country ReportConclusions and Recommendationsfrom a Regional PerspectiveThis chapter provides the Conclusions andRecommendations from the Regional Perspectivedocument, which summarizes the findings for allthe country studies and goes beyond to raiseissues that need to be addressed by thoseoperating at the level of national policy, by thoseinvolved in implementation, and at school level.Thus the Conclusions and Recommendations forIndia from the previous chapter can be seen herein a wider regional context.6.1 ConclusionsThe UNICEF study points to several conclusions,some of which reflect earlier findings of the initialliterature study and others which differ to someextent from these findings. While someconclusions are inevitably specific to individualcountries others reveal messages which pertainacross the four countries.An overall conclusion which can be drawn is thatlack of access to water and sanitation does notappear on its own to be a reason for permanentexclusion of children from school, although it mightwell provide a contributory factor. Most childrensaid that if they had the opportunity to study thenthey would, and that teachers turning up regularlyand teaching well were what made it worthwhilecoming to school. This emphasis on theimportance of seeing water and sanitation issueswithin the overall context of quality education isimportant. The India report in particular expressesconcern that the lack of coordination betweenthose involved in water and sanitation and thoseinvolved in education can create ‘one-dimensionalpreoccupations’ with some individual schoolsbecoming a showcase for cleanliness to thedetriment of children’s learning.However, parallel to this, the study revealed clearevidence that decent water and sanitation facilitiesdid certainly make a difference to the quality ofchildren’s experience. It also showed how, despiteexamples in all countries which contradicted this,there were still many examples both of somechildren being temporarily excluded from schoolbecause of inadequate facilities (this wasparticularly an issue for menstruating girls) andalso of discrimination playing itself out in thedomains of water and sanitation and of perceptionsof cleanliness and uncleanliness.Sufficiency and maintenance offacilitiesAlthough the prime purpose of this study was toexamine whether certain children werediscriminated against in relation to water andsanitation, this could not be ascertained without aprior examination of the sufficiency and adequacyof facilities. The research showed very largevariations within all four countries. In all fourcountries, although the schools were selected onthe basis that they had been supplied with waterand sanitation facilities, there were many instancesof schools which had insufficient access both tosafe drinking water and to toilets. The result wasthat many children went without water and choseeither to go home or go outside the schoolpremises to defecate. There also appeared to beuncertainty as to who had responsibility formaintenance of facilities with the result that manyhad been inoperable for some time.While some facilities in all countries were reportedas being well maintained and clean, many otherswere described as very dirty with no equipmentbeing provided for cleaning and no soap or towelsfor children’s handwashing. The result was thatchildren were loath to use school toilets. In all37
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Cover Photo: © UNICEF/India/Sanjay
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Equity in School Water and Sanitation

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