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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Jairam Ramesh wants toilets in all schools by March 2013

Jairam Ramesh wants toilets in all schools by March 2013

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published Published on Oct 25, 2012   modified Modified on Oct 25, 2012
-The Economic Times

After kicking up a row by saying that there are more temples in India than toilets, Union Cabinet minister Jairam Ramesh has now set March 2013 as the target date to ensure that all schools have proper working toilets for girls and boys.

Ramesh even reached out to human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, requesting him for a dedicated operation and maintenance fund of roughly Rs 12,000 for every school per year.

While 84% of schools do have separate toilets for girls and boys, District Information System Education (DISE) data on functional toilets aren't encouraging at all. Education NGO Pratham's 2011 Annual Survey of Education - Rural (ASER) reported that only 49% of the school toilets were functional, while DISE data found 76% of schools have functional toilets.

"Too often children are expected to use dirty, stinking facilities or revert to open defecation - the very behaviour we are mutually striving to eradicate; or in many circumstances, they go absent from school - this is especially true for adolescent girls," rural development minister Ramesh wrote. The lack of proper toilets is contributing to high absenteeism and drop-outs, especially among girls, the minister added.

He also pointed out that the lack of efficient operation and maintenance is due to the absence of dedicated funds and an organised system at the school level. As a result, money spent in setting up a toilet is often as good as wasted.

Under the current arrangement, the drinking water and sanitation ministry provides for the construction of toilets while the HRD ministry gives an annual school maintenance grant for routine maintenance of school infrastructure.

This grant -- Rs 5,000 per year on primary schools and Rs 10,000 per year for upper primary schools -- "is deemed woefully inadequate as evidenced by functionality levels", said Ramesh.

Quoting an estimate for maintaining school water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, Ramesh suggested Rs 1,000 per month, per school. This would mean that to cover all 1.3 million schools, a sum of nearly Rs 1,500 crore would be required each year.

"This amounts to approximately Rs 1,500 crore a year, which is around 7% of the SSA budget, but almost 45% of the sanitation budget and hence the special request," Ramesh said. The minister stressed that "convergence between both our ministries will help ensure that operation and maintenance is institutionalised once and for all across all schools in India".

The Economic Times, 25 October, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/jairam-ramesh-wants-toilets-in-all-schools-by-march-2013/articleshow/16945882.cms


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