Swachh Bharat mission: UN report says Indian schools reach near 100% sanitation from 50% in the last 10 years

A recent UN report says Indian schools have achieved a major success as almost all schools in the country had some type of sanitation facility in 2016, as compared to half the schools in a decade ago when no sanitation facility was available in India.

According to the UN report, India has made an unprecedented and rapid progress in increasing access to sanitation in schools. It further stated that the proportion of schools without any sanitation facility has reduced fast movingly in the country.

A new joint UN agency study, ‘Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: 2018 Global Baseline Report,’ reports that good hygiene facilities in schools offer the basis of a healthy learning environment and that girls have then more chances to attend schools when they are on their period.

The annual report is prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children's Fund Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), which has been constantly monitoring global progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) since 1990.

The report said India "has made rapid progress in increasing access to sanitation facilities in schools."It said, between 2000 and 2016, the proportion of schools in India without any sanitation facility came down even faster than the proportion of the population practising open defecation. As stated in the report between 2000 and 2016, the number of school-age children in India went up from 352 million to 378 million.

The report besides said that a recent survey in India collected information on the availability of facilities for menstrual hygiene management. The proportion of schools with bins with lids for the disposal of sanitary materials have different access across states in India, from 98 per cent in Chandigarh to 36 per cent in Chhattisgarh. Mizoram is the only state in India where more than 50 per cent of schools have a functional incinerator for the disposal of sanitary waste.