More than 2,57,000 schools in India are without Toilets
Multiple studies have shown that lack of toilets is one of the prime reasons for the dropout of children, especially the girl child from the school system. Other than lack of toilets, the school system also suffers from lack of other facilities like access to drinking water, electricity, play ground etc. In this piece, we will look at the statistics related to both Government & Private schools and lack of major facilities.
[orc]Lack of Toilets
According to the Unified District Information System data for Education (U-DISE) for the year 2013-14, there are a total of 2,57,680 schools without a toilet. This comes to a total of 18% schools in the country without a toilet.
| S No | State | Percentage of Schools Without Toilets | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government | Private | Total | ||
| 1 | Arunachal Pradesh | 78.0% | 31.5% | 72.5% |
| 2 | Andhra Pradesh (Including Telangana) | 56.8% | 49.8% | 54.9% |
| 3 | Meghalaya | 50.1% | 38.8% | 45.6% |
| 4 | Jammu & Kashmir | 41.7% | 49.2% | 43.0% |
| 5 | Assam | 37.9% | 29.7% | 37.0% |
| 6 | Bihar | 34.0% | 17.1% | 33.6% |
| 7 | Orissa | 32.5% | 35.7% | 32.9% |
| 8 | Mizoram | 29.3% | 57.2% | 33.7% |
| 9 | West Bengal | 29.0% | 65.2% | 32.8% |
| 10 | Chhattisgarh | 21.5% | 40.5% | 23.5% |
| All India | 18.6% | 17% | 18.2% | |
Only the top 10 states have a greater percentage of schools without toilets than the national average of 18%. Andhra Pradesh (Including Telangana) occupies the second spot with 55% schools that are without toilets. Other states in the top 10 include Arunachal Pradesh, J & K, Orissa, West Bengal among others.
There are 19 such States/UTs where the percentage of private schools without a toilet is greater than the percentage of government schools without a toilet.
Chandigarh & Delhi are the only UT & State with a toilet in every school. There are 9 such states where the percentage of schools without a toilet is less than 5%. States like Puducherry, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra & Uttar Pradesh are part of this list.
Lack of Water Facilities
A total 58,221 schools across the country do not have access to drinking water. Of this are 5% of all the government schools & 1% of all private schools. A total of 4% schools in the country fall into this category. There are seven states where one out of every 10 schools is without drinking water.
| S No | State | Percentage of Schools Without Toilets | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government | Private | Total | ||
| 1 | Meghalaya | 39.9% | 16.5% | 30.5% |
| 2 | Nagaland | 31.6% | 13.9% | 27.8% |
| 3 | Arunachal Pradesh | 22.9% | 0.9% | 20.3% |
| 4 | Assam | 14.2% | 8.7% | 13.6% |
| 5 | Tripura | 12.3% | 4.2% | 11.8% |
| 6 | Jammu & Kashmir | 12.1% | 1.7% | 10.2% |
| 7 | Manipur | 13.7% | 2.3% | 10.1% |
| 8 | Andhra Pradesh (Including Telangana) | 12.9% | 0.3% | 9.5% |
| 9 | Jharkhand | 9.0% | 3.4% | 8.7% |
| 10 | Bihar | 7.7% | 0.5% | 7.5% |
| All India | 5% | 1.1% | 4.1% | |
There are 14 states where the percentage of schools without drinking water facility is less than 1%. Chandigarh & Delhi again stand at the top without a single school in this list.
Lack of Major Facilities in Government Schools
The situation in Government schools is worse than that in Private schools. A half of them have no electricity and almost a half of them have no playground apart from lack of toilets and drinking water.
Data Sources:
Unstarred Question Number 329, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Answered on 25-02-2015 in the Lok Sabha.
Featured image source: waterdotorg