Hyderabad: Telangana bears the disgrace of being the state with the largest number of government schools without toilets in India.
Of the 30,023 government schools, 2,124 or 7 per cent are without toilets, while 11,124 schools, or about 37 per cent, do not have access to tap water, according to data tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for 2021-2022.
The data came to light after Abdul Wahab, a Rajya Sabha member from Kerala, questioned the condition of toilets, tap water and drinking water in government schools across all states and union territories in the country.
The state with the second poorest toilet infrastructure in India is Rajasthan, followed by Uttar Pradesh, but both fare much better than Telangana. About 1.8% of 68,948 schools in Rajasthan and 0.8% of 1,37,024 schools in UP do not have toilets.
K Chandrasekhar Rao has been the Chief Minister of Telangana criticized For turning a blind eye to the concerns of the education sector in the past.
Retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali told ThePrint, “The education sector has always been neglected by the chief minister, especially with regard to the funds allocated to it over the years.
They estimate that more than 60 percent of schools in Telangana do not have fully functional toilets. “Even though some government schools have toilets, the question is how many of them are fully functional , With proper doors and windows, tap water facility and good maintenance?” Murali asked.
ThePrint reached the office of Telangana Education Minister Sabita Indra Reddy over the issue, but did not receive a response till the time of publishing this report. This report will be updated when a response is received.
According to data presented in the Rajya Sabha, all government schools in states and union territories such as Chandigarh, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu had toilets. Delhi, Goa and Andaman are also in this list.
damsels in distress
In 2014, the year Telangana was officially formed, KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) came to power on the promise of an education scheme. , ‘KG to PG’. The party’s manifesto declared that education from kindergarten to post-graduate level would be free. but the plan attracted Tanks that can destroy planes Its implementation fell short of expectations.
In March this year, the Telangana government launched a program called ‘mind uru mind badi‘ (translated as ‘Our Village, Our School’) aims to improve school infrastructure and quality of education in the state.
under the scheme , To be completed in three phases over three years , The state government has planned to develop 9,123 schools in the first phase at a cost of Rs 3,497 crore.
Although launched with much publicity, the scheme has had a slow start and has dragged criticism from the opposition Congress And educational,
“His (KCR’s) programs and schemes for the education sector are purely vote-based and election-based. Implementation is questionable. Education and health are the least of their interests,” said Murali, who is also the convenor of an independent organization called the Social Democratic Forum, which is working for the upliftment of government schools in Telangana.
As part of the organisation, he visited over 100 government schools in the state to monitor their condition.
Lack of toilets causes problems for the girls. “In some cases, we found that high school girls do not drink water for the whole day because there are no toilets and they have to defecate in the open. They drink water at their home before leaving and do so only after returning from school,” Murali said.
Only 10 schools surveyed had toilets, he alleged, adding, “With the lack of toilets, many students defecate in the open”.
In Telangana’s Adilabad, one of the most underdeveloped districts in the state, 1,052 out of 1,288 government schools do not have access to tap water, according to data given to the Rajya Sabha. And there are no toilets in 258 schools.
“Under KCR’s rule, the responsibility of maintaining government schools was given to village panchayats (GPs). GP’s sweepers are not up to maintenance. There have been instances when school headmasters have contributed money from their own pockets to clean the toilets,” Murali said.
He was criticized by Mohammed Ali Shabbir, former Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council, who Told In September 2020 at a Teachers’ Day event in Hyderabad that the Chief Minister had neglected the education sector as well as the teachers.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)