HYDERABAD: With the help of some 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 a basic facility like water needs to be provided on a first come first served basis.
Among the 30,023 government schools in Telangana, 11,124 schools do not have tap water supply, while 1,859 schools have no drinking water. The issue of lack of infrastructure in government schools in Telangana has once again surfaced when the above data was presented in Rajya Sabha recently.
P V Abdul Wahab, a Member of Parliament from Kerala, asked about the number of government schools with no toilets, no tap water supply and no drinking water facility at all. In reply, the central Ministry of Education highlighted the data in the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) report of 2021-22.
The data also highlighted that as many as 2,124, that is, 7 per cent schools, in the 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.
A separate data sheet has also been provided by the Ministry for three socio-economically poor aspirational districts in the State, Adilabad, Bhadradri and Warangal Rural. Among them, 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.
Adolescent girls hit hardest
“Adolescent girls in government schools have to rush home every time they start menstruation as there are no toilets in school, “ said Manjula, a child rights worker in Medchal. 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.
Borewell water for drinking?
In some 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, 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.