Equity in School Water and Sanitation

EQUITY IN SCHOOL WATER AND SANITATIONChildren are aware of scabies, and segregated those children who appeared to be affected by this disease.They are aware about various sources of potable water, difference between clean and dirty water, harmfuleffects of using dirty water, benefits of using toilets, etc.The upper primary school has one hand pump; its water is not being used for drinking, but only for toiletusage. Drinking water is accessed from the primary school and stored in a container. The toilets and theurinals for boys are being used. The girls’ toilet stays locked for purposes of tracking by the teachers asto who is using it and when. The overhead tank, supplied with water via a submersible pump, often doesnot fill up due to shortage of electricity. Children often have to fetch water in buckets from the hand pumpfor the teachers’ usage.There is no disposal facility for sanitary towels in the toilets or school, though the lady teacher wasstocking sanitary towels.There is a ‘sanitation corner’ being used by children. Dustbins have been fabricated by the children, andthey are using these in the classes.Neither the toilets nor the school have ramps for two children with disability (a boy and a girl in Classes 6and 7 respectively).Gender segregation is evident with respect to cleaning responsibilities of girls and boys, and while eatingthe meals – girls sit separately in the school verandah. The boys were responsible for opening andlocking the classrooms, but school cleaning activities were shared equally by boys and girls. Children inboth the primary school and upper primary school remain clean and presentable, with nails pared andhair combed: this shows that the children’s club is active and conscious about personal hygiene mattersrelating to children.The community is aware of sanitation in the village and also supports school sanitation programmes.Each of the areas is clean and devoid of garbage, litter and cattle excreta. The village hand pumps areused for water collection, and not for public bathing; their drainage is connected to the closed drainagesystem of the village. A sweeper comes once in a week, and collects the garbage from bins and burns it.Sanitation practices and toilet usage are monitored by the village committee, the pradhan, the women’sself help group (SHG), the children, and the vigilant youth. Sanitation is a major agenda item in thevillage, so it is included in their discussions, is practised and monitored. Children share information withparents about toilet cleaning (with a brush and toilet cleaner), so they are well informed how to maintainand clean their toilets.Open defecation is something all villagers are against. There is close monitoring of this by people whouse torches at night and early morning to discourage violators. The village youth are particularly active inthis regard. The best advocacy for this village is provided by a young man who does wall paintings, as healso visits other villages in the area for this purpose. He calls on people to come to his village and see theimpact of total sanitation – ‘Hamare gaon me aao aur dekho (come and see our village).’However, a few years ago Khanjadipur was different. There was no system for garbage disposal in thevillage, including lack of a system for disposal of sanitary towels, which were buried in fields by girls andwomen then.There were instances of drop-outs reported by out-of-school adolescents – drop-out of boys was mainlydue to economic reasons and a few girls were married off, thus they left schooling.70