Congress MP raises concern over lack of toilets for girl students in govt schools

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New Delhi, March 16

Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan on Monday raised concern over the absence of separate toilets for girl students in government schools, urging the Centre to conduct an immediate survey of school infrastructure across the country.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, the Congress leader from Chhattisgarh said the ground reality of the government’s “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” scheme was far from its promise.

“There are slogans from various platforms, but there is not even a toilet for girl students in schools,” she said.

Ranjan cited a recent report stating that over 5,000 schools in Chhattisgarh do not have separate toilets for girl students, adding that the state High Court had termed the situation “shameful” and sought a response from the state government.

Referring to national data, she said as per a 2014-15 survey of 14.72 lakh schools, a majority lacked basic infrastructure. In Bihar, only 23 per cent of schools have separate toilets for girls, while in Uttar Pradesh the figure is 69 per cent. In Jammu and Kashmir, 1,321 government schools have no toilets.

She said UNICEF data shows 22 per cent of schools lack basic infrastructure for girl students, and around 2.3 crore girls drop out of school due to absence of facilities such as clean water, soap and sanitary napkins.

“Is Beti Bachao Beti Padhao confined only to speeches and advertisements?” she asked.

Ranjan urged the government to survey school infrastructure on a war footing and ensure every government school has separate, clean toilets along with water, soap and sanitary napkins for girl students.

PTI