Only 32 per cent of schools in Tamil Nadu have toilets that are accessible by students with disabilities, according to data shared by the Ministry of Education, India. The figures have alarmed many activists as they believe the lack of disabled-friendly toilets is one of the reasons why children with disabilities drop out of school. According to the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report 2020-21, released recently by the Union Ministry of Education, there are 58,904 schools (including government, aided, private and other management) in the state of Tamil Nadu. Out of these, only 19,026 schools are equipped with toilets for Children With Special Needs (CWSN). As per the report, in the academic year 2020-21, 1,61,533 CWSN enrolled in schools across Tamil Nadu.
“We talk a lot about inclusive education in schools, but these figures give us a reality check. Inclusion still remains a distant reality for most CWSN students in our state. Inaccessible facilities in schools such as drinking water units, toilets and transportation pose barriers to the education of CWSN,” said TMN Deepak, a disability rights activist. He said the accessibility of barrier-free toilets plays an important role in the education of CWSN, especially girl students.
“Lack of toilets and other infrastructure adds to the challenges faced by special children. Many parents are forced to pull their daughters out of schools due to lack of proper toilets as they are worried about their safety,” said V Sandhya, a social worker.
When contacted, an official from the state's School Education Department said, "Measures are being taken to make toilets in all government schools disabled-friendly. We are, however, facing problems in implementing them as some government school buildings, located in rural areas, are old and we need to renovate the entire structure to construct disabled-friendly toilets."
However, in some good news, the report does state that government schools in the state have better infrastructure for CWSN when compared with private ones. At least 40.12 per cent of government schools have CWSN-friendly toilets while the figure is at only 24.21 per cent in private schools, according to the report. While over 98 per cent of government schools have ramps and handrail facilities (both critical to making the campus disabled-friendly) only 34 per cent of private schools have ramps and only 11.57 per cent have handrails. There are about 37,589 government schools in the state.
“Private schools spend a lot on their infrastructure, but they never bother to make their schools accessible for disabled students,” said Sandhya. Though Tamil Nadu's performance is better than neighbouring states, activists feel a lot of infrastructure development needs to be done in the schools to make them more inclusive and accessible for all.
