Swachh Bharat for Boys

• Swachh Bharat initiative is the flagship programme of the new government and one of the primary objectives of the same is providing access to safe sanitary conditions for all citizens. A major corollary of the latter is building more toilets in schools, especially for girls.
• Provision of more toilets for girls in schools will ensure the dropout rates of adolescent girls come down considerably as a recent government survey had suggested that major reason for girls dropping out at middle and high school level are lack of toilets in schools. Thus, the public sanitation drive has come to resonate with the cause of provision of more toilets for girls.
• However, the statistics presented by District Information System for Education reveal that in 4 out of 36 Indian States and UTs, is the percentage of schools with toilets for girls lesser than the percentage of schools with toilets for boys. In 27 states and UTs, boys had as many toilets as girls or less. Also, the number of dysfunctional toilets is higher for boys in 16 states and UTs while it is higher for girls in 14. The 4 states in which schools do not have toilets for boys’ are-Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana and Assam.
• Thus, absence of toilets for boys in schools may not have an effect on their dropout numbers but is sure to worsen the sanitation situation in India and will leave the children with habits they won’t be able to shed for entire life. Thus, toilets for girl students are essential but the need of equal sanitary condition for both sexes cannot be ignored or brushed aside.