BENGALURU: A unique initiative by an NGO has led to an increase in the attendance of girl students in 15 high schools in various districts. The poor bathroom infrastructure and inadequate water supply had forced the girl students to routinely miss classes for three-four days every month. A study found out that the girls were missing classes during their month periods due to a lack of facilities.
Environment Association of Bangalore (EAB), a non-government organisation, decided to harvest rainwater by setting up facilities in these institutions. The schools in Devanahalli, Chintamani, Chikkaballapur and adjoining areas are now equipped with rainwater harvesting units, which ensure adequate supply of water round the year. In fact, the initiative has also seen more number of girls enrolling in all these institutes. EAB was started by former ISRO chairman Dr K Kasturirangan 25 years ago.
‘Spike in enrolments after RWH’
Several Class 10 students from different government schools in Bengaluru Rural district told TNIE that the initiative has come as a big relief to them. Retired IAS officer and co-founder and president of EAB, Dr RG Nadadur, said, “Scores of students have benefitted from our initiative. Not only has the attendance gone up but new enrolments have increased. We have received letters of gratitude from the schools.”
He added, “We’ve requests from many schools to install rainwater harvesting units. But it will depend on the funds we raise. We are now in our silver jubilee year and are hoping for generous support from corporates under their CSR wing”.
EAB founder Dr K. Kasturirangan had said during the inauguration of the NGO, “There is a vast wealth of experience, knowledge and talent at various levels in several organisations located in Bengaluru. Let EAB be the forum for all people to come up with suggestions to address the myriad problems of Bengaluru.’’