New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report on the construction of toilets in schools across the country has brought to the fore a serious dichotomy. The report states that 286 school toilets that were marked as ‘constructed’ on paper don’t have existence.
A total of 2,695 toilets were surveyed between September 2017 and January 2018. Among them, 200 have not been constructed while eight are partially constructed.
“The non-existing and partially constructed toilets constituted 11 per cent of toilets in the audit sample,” the report, quoted by EdexLive, read.
Also, 83 other toilets have only been identified for construction.
It may be recalled that the CAG report had earlier revealed that of the constructed toilets, 30 per cent are not in use. “In 1,679 out of 2,326 constructed toilets (72 per cent), running water facility inside the toilets was not available,” the report earlier said.
Lack of toilets was always cited as a reason for the number of female student dropouts in Indian schools. A report by an NGO Dasra in 2014 found that nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to a lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities.
“355 million women and girls are still waiting for a toilet in India,” Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet College told EdexLive.