55% of Karnataka govt school toilets in poor condition, funds allocated

The Karnataka budget announced by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday included a Rs 100 crore allocation over the next two years to upgrade the toilets in government schools and provide water connectivity. The decision to allocate funds came after a survey by the state Education Department that found that more than 55% of government schools in the state do not have adequate toilet facilities. The survey findings were released in February 2021. 

The survey awarded a score of 0 or 1 to 27,149 out of the 49,279 schools documented. The score means that the infrastructure has scope for improvement. 

As per the survey, 3,833 of the 4,765 high schools documented had toilets that were in poor condition. 13,007 of the 22,172 upper primary schools documented had toilets that were in poor condition. This was also the case in 10,559 of the 22,342 primary schools documented.

The alarming condition of toilets in Karnataka's government schools was highlighted by Archana KR, an activist who documented government schools in different parts of the state. Archana has been visiting government schools for the last eight years and has advocated for higher funds to be made available for schools to upgrade their toilets.

Speaking to TNM, Archana KR said, "I had documented 300 schools in a separate survey and in my sample, I found that 70% schools had toilets in poor condition. I placed a higher value on the opinion of students rather than teachers." Archana had posted a petition on Change.org which caught the attention of Karnataka Education Minister S Suresh Kumar in November 2020, and he responded to the petition.

Archana noted that during her documentation work, she found that toilets in schools in north Karnataka districts of Belagavi, Dharwad, Hubballi and Raichur were found to be in the worst condition. Some toilets were found to have broken doors, broken tiles, mangled pipelines and dirty bowls, "In Bengaluru, the toilets in the northern part of the city are comparatively worse than those in the southern part. Toilets in Hubballi, Dharwad, Belagavi and Raichur are in poor condition. Chikkaballapura has toilet facilities in most schools but water connection is not there," she said.

She highlighted that the problem was often due to the lack of funds provided to schools. "Toilets become the last priority for school authorities to address," she added. 

The Education Department's survey on the infrastructure of schools corroborated Archana's findings last month and subsequently, the state government has allocated funds to improve toilets in schools across the state. 

All photographs by Archana KR