Telangana: Government schools continue to lack basic amenities like drinking water, toilets

Among the 30,023 government schools in Telangana, 11,124 schools do not have a tap water supply, while 1,859 schools have no drinking water
Image for representation purpose only | Pic: EdexLive
Image for representation purpose only | Pic: EdexLive

Many government schools in Telangana lack basic facilities for students like drinking water, toilets and so on. With the help of a few donors, a government school in Hyderabad started providing water cans for children as there was no drinking water available. However, with a limited amount of funds, even basic facility like water needs to be provided on a first come first served basis, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.

Additionally, among the 30,023 government schools in Telangana, there is no tap water supply for 11,124 schools, while 1,859 schools have no drinking water. The issue of lack of infrastructure in government schools in Telangana once again surfaced when the above data was presented in Rajya Sabha recently.

A Member of the Parliament from Kerala, PV Abdul Wahab, asked about the government schools with no toilets, no tap water supply and no drinking water facility at all. Responding to this, the central Ministry of Education highlighted the data in the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) report of 2021-22.

UDISE Report
As per the data, as many as 2,124, schools in Telangana do not have toilet facilities at all. There are 22,043 schools with toilet facilities for boys and 26,066 schools with toilet facilities for girls. The ratio of girls' toilets to boys' toilets in Telangana is 1.47, as per a report by The New Indian Express.

Further, a separate data sheet was provided by the Ministry for three socio-economically poor aspirational districts in the State. Namely, Adilabad, Bhadradri and Warangal Rural. Among these, Adilabad experiences the worst condition with 1,052 schools with no tap water facility, 349 with no drinking water and 258 with no toilets. There are a total of 1,288 schools in the entire district, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.

Absence of Menstrual Care
A child rights worker in Medhchal said, "Adolescent girls in government schools have to rush home every time they start menstruation as there are no toilets in school." Girls either have to wait for their working parents to pick them up from school or manage to go home and wait there for their parents to come home, she added.

To recall, the Ministry of Education, in association with the State governments, had launched the Swachh Vidyalaya initiative in 2014 to provide separate toilets for boys and girls in all government schools within one year. The Ministry of School Education had earlier revealed that under this initiative, the Centre had allotted funds of Rs 13799.30 as a part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rs 29.05 lakh as a part of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan to Telangana. As many as Rs 709.30 lakh were also released from Swachh Bharat Kosh after 2015.

Borewell water for drinking
In a few schools, though drinking water is available, it is not up to the mark. Out of the 27 government schools in Sircilla, 19 have borewell water facilities, an RTI filed by Robin Zaccheus, an RTI activist, in May this year has revealed.

Similarly, out of 825 schools in Nagarkurnool, 284 do not have Mission Bhagiratha drinking water facility and in 110 schools, the connection is available but there is no water, another RTI by him revealed. Most of the schools in Nizamabad and Pedappalli share the same fate.

"They still have not been able to fix the educational institutions. The irony is the government still continues to be in denial instead of taking the information revealed by the activists and act on it," said Robin.

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