National Girl Child Day: 78,854 Indian schools don't have functional toilets for girls

Despite the Centre’s ambitious Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme, girl students across the country struggle to avail basic facilities at schools, which in turn push many to drop out. Stats of India reported that 5.3 per cent of schools in India do not have a functional toilet for girls – this translates to a whopping 78,854 schools.

The source for the shocking data is UDISE 2021-22 (Unified District Information System for Education), the management information system of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Education Ministry.

Stats of India is a website that explores India through data, stories and visualizations.

70 lakh girls hit

There are about 14.7 lakh girls and co-educational schools in India, with about 26.5 crore students.

A total of 48.8 per cent of all children born in India are girls, which means that almost 70 lakh girls are affected by the lack of functional toilets in schools.

One wonders how many girls do not attend school due to lack of toilets.

Also read: How Delhi govt transformed its schools, and the challenges it faces

A functional toilet is defined as one that has water available, no foul smell (cleaned regularly), unbroken seat, a working drainage system, is dry, accessible to users and has a door that is closable.

Break-up of states

Fifty per cent of the schools that do not have functional toilets for girls are in Assam, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.

States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya have more than 4,000 of these schools.

States and Union Territories that have the distinction of having functional toilets for girls in all their schools are Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.