Shockingly, as many as 538 government schools mostly located in rural areas across the state have no toilets in the schools in Haryana state, causing lot of inconvenience to girl students usually seen searching for a lonely place or thick bushes near the school campus to urinate. Information also reveals, nearly 131 government schools in the state have no facility for drinking water, 236 schools across the state do not have electric connection, nearly 321 schools in the state are without having four walls. Informaion also reveals that there is shortage of nearly 8240 additional class rooms as a result students are forced to sit out side in open and not having 5630 rooms for laboratories , reading rooms, computer rooms and even for the staff.
The importance of a clean and functional toilet in every school cannot be denied, Filthy and unhygienic toilets cause health risks and parents generally demand stringent action against schools that normalise unhygienic practices and lack facilities to their wards require to visualise a scenario where there are no toilets at all in case of as many as 538 state-run schools in Haryana are without toilets for girls, whereas 1,047 schools in the state especially in rural areas do not have urinals even for boys which speaks of the fake, tall talk claims by the government for improvement in the infrastructure of education sector in the state under such appalling conditions as well as for the safety of female students as such many drop out because of menstrual hygiene concerns. Having ill-maintained toilets or none at all in many schools is a problem that is undermining initiatives to ensure quality education for all. Clean toilets can help improve the student retention rate. The Haryana report is a wake-up call for the authorities to prioritise this vital issue and penalise schools not paying attention to it. Both government and private schools must redouble efforts in this regard.
Dr Anshaj Singh Director Medium Schools Education. Haryana while talking to media persons said that during currents financial year decision has been taken to have drinking water dacilities in 131 schools, toilets are being constructed in 1585 schools and 236 schools are being provided electric connections for which there is requirement for budget worth Rs 25 lakh. He assured provision for construction of 8240 additional class rooms in such schools, 5630 other rooms for laboratories, computer teaching, libraries and for the staff in schools located in rural areas this year for which budget for amount worth Rs 1784 crore is required, whereas budget for the amount worth only Rs 424.44 crore is vailable during the year 2023-24.
Information reveals that parents of students stydying in government schools in rural areas has also approasched education department in the state to improve the innfrastructure of these government schools located in rural areas in the state. According to information, during year 2017 a group of students had approached Punjab and Haryana High Court and submitted a writ about pitiable condition of many government schools located in rural areas stating that the building of large number of schools located in rural areas is in critical condition and even risky for the students, also stated that there is no required staff in large number of schools when state education department assured court to take appropriate action in this regard but to no result so far, raising a question mark over the future of young generation studying in these schools.
