- Public sector units claimed to have constructed 1.4 lakh toilets in government schools as part of a Right to Education project,
- But almost 40% of those surveyed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) were found to be non-existent, partially constructed, or unused.
- In an audit report presented in Parliament, the CAG said over 70% did not have running water facilities in the toilets, while 75% were not being maintained hygienically.
- The Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in September 2014
- To meet the Right to Education Act’s mandate that all schools must have separate toilets for boys and girls.
- Lack of dedicated funds, poor maintenance and poor water availability in toilets were identified as major challenges, and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) were roped in to bridge the gap over a one year period.
- There are 10.8 lakh government schools in the country.
- Overall, more than 1.4 lakh toilets were built by 53 CPSEs, with significant support coming from power, coal and oil companies.
- In order to effectively change the behaviour of students, the project norms required the CPSEs to build toilets with running water and hand washing facilities, and to maintain the toilets for three to five years while charging the annual expenses to their CSR budgets.
- Out of the 1,967 coeducational schools surveyed, 99 schools had no functional toilets while 436 had only one functional toilet, meaning that the objective of providing separate toilets for boys and girls was not fulfilled in 27% of the schools.
- 72% of constructed toilets had no running water facilities inside, while 55% had no hand washing facilities at all.
- 75% of toilets did not follow the norm for daily cleaning at least once a day.
