Equity in School Water and Sanitation

4 ANNEXCase StudiesOvercoming Exclusion and Discrimination in South AsiaIndia Country ReportCase 1Best practice: From school to villageKhanjadipurKhanjadipur is a Nirmal Gram located in Rajgarh block of Mirzapur district, which comes under the TotalSanitation Campaign (TSC) launched in 2000/01, under the department of Panchayati Raj in collaborationwith UNICEF. The village has a population of 1,750, of which the majority is OBC, followed by SCs. Thepradhan, a lady, Nitu Singh, is represented by her husband, who plays an active role in village governancewith special commitment to sanitation and village development – thus he is referred to as Pradhan Pati(Pradhan’s Husband).A tour of the village presents an overall positive picture: closed drains, well-used garbage bins, handpumps with platforms and proper drainage for waste water, enclosed bathing shelters for women, publicurinals for men, and clean, litter-free village roads.The small but well contained primary school is located on the main road, across which was located theupper primary school. At the primary school, the toilets for both boys and girls were child friendly indesign, including those for the 3–5 year old Anganwadi children. However, accessibility to them for childrenwith disabilities was a problem.The school toilet was clean and appeared well used. There was sweeper who came in weekly, butchildren maintained the cleanliness over the week. The toilet usage and cleaning habits of children werealso evident in their homes, as witnessed during the village visit.The water facility was via a force lift hand pump which supplied clean potable water to washbasins whichhad taps for hand washing. As an alternative, a submersible pump was linked to the hand pump, whichchildren knew how to operate to fill up the tank; children, both boys and girls, were checking the overheadtank to see it was full. The drain from the hand pump platform was linked to the covered drain of the village.A garbage bin was located at the rear end of the school – the children dumped their daily litter in it, andthis was cleaned by the sweeper once a week.The handwashing practices after toilet use, and before/after meals, and even after cleaning up the campus,were observed. These practices have been transferred by the children to their families, as they haveeducated their siblings and parents, and often do the cleaning themselves too.They have a committee to organize the MDM, seating arrangements during the meals, and cleaning upafter the meal. No gender/caste-based segregation is visible in classroom practices; nor between havesand have-nots since all homes had toilets and were using them.69