The School Toilet Project
Why School Toilets?
During our child protection work in rural and vulnerable communities, we found that children are not safe in school as well, they are facing many unsafe issues in school toilets, It’s so often that school toilets are the cause of negative behavior. Students will often avoid going to the toilet because of the dirtiness, no doors, broken locks, soap is unavailable every time, mostly no electricity connections in toilets and somewhere lights don’t always work, unpleasant odors are around and all this combined suggests an unsafe environment. Young girls who drop out of school do so because the school hasn’t got a basic toilet. Lack of toilets and water puts women and girls at risk of shame and a target for sexual assault. And in many Researches has found that when students are avoiding school toilets they are often diagnosed with health problems. We found that all children are getting depressed and especially girls suffer a lot due to no toilets and bad toilets.
Girls are mentally depressed themselves. Because of unsafe and dirty toilets, Girls are dropping out of school after seeing all of this; we felt an overwhelming sense of sadness.
What if there had been contacting numbers on the toilet door for Kids Helpline, I wondered, or an inspiring quote that spoke of hope? Might these simple things have made a difference? We decorate our school counselors’ offices in ways that we know will help elevate mood, yet we give no consideration to the one place we know upset students naturally gravitate to – the school toilets. At the moment, most school toilets are either sterile or covered in filth.
We thought someone should do something about this; someone should encourage young people to redesign their toilets so they feel more welcoming and nurturing. In doing so, teens would also be gaining incredible insights into how they can best self-soothe, and learning more about how design and the environment affect their mood.
So we decided to be that someone!
We started by completing a 50 school toilets research paper (it’s riveting!) You may read the highlights on this page. We were absolutely stunned at what we discovered.
There is an urgent need to reimaging school toilets.
We got the opportunity to trial The School Toilet Project in a Government Upper Primary school toilet in Bharatpur.
We are inspired by the results there and hope you will be too.
A message from the project founders, Darakht Chhanv Foundation directors, Ms. Usha & Monika
There is an urgent need to reimaging school toilets.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION for the toilets renovation. (The total estimated cost for the one toilet from start to completion to meet the standard obtainable is INR 50000-60000/-)
- Excavation & Earthwork
- Concrete Work
- Block Work
- Roof Structure
- Doors & Windows
- Finishing (tiles, lighting, borne hole, etc)
- Painting Work
- Toilet seats and Fittings
- Washbasin installation with hygiene products
- Contingencies
Providing hygiene and sanitation facilities in the school will create an enabling school environment and children’s regularity to school will be improved, awareness of hygiene and sanitation will increase and children will have fewer illnesses due to water-borne infections. In the long term, the project is expected to reduce dropout rates, especially among girls, in upper primary and high school in the project-covered villages. The project will benefit many children in the project adopted schools. The organization will try to reach 15 school toilets in this 2021/22-23 years. For making them healthy for children.
S. No. | Name of the school | No. of students | Girls in menstrual circle |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Government Upper Primary school- Chakramnagar Bharatpur | 192 | 75 |
2 | Government Senior Secondary school –Ekta Bharatpur | 400 | 120 |
3 | Government Upper Primary school- Chak Ekta Bharatpur | 170 | 50 |
4 | Government Senior Secondary school- Aaghapur Bharatpur | 432 | 112 |
5 | Government Upper Primary school- Aaghapur Bharatpur | 72 | 15 |
6 | Government Senior Secondary school- Bajhera Bharatpur | 410 | 130 |
7 | Government Senior Secondary school- Sewar Bharatpur | 600 | 220 |
8 | Government Sanskrit Senior Secondary school- sewer Bharatpur | 276 | 110 |
9 | Government Upper primary school – Nalga Tairyan Bharatpur | 156 | 35 |
10 | Government Upper primary school – Jaat Madoli Bharatpur | 75 | 20 |
11 | Government Senior Secondary school- Rampur Bharatpur | 304 | 70 |
12 | Government Senior Secondary school- Ludhawai Bharatpur | 460 | 175 |
13 | Government Preetam Kaur higher secondary school- Kila Bharatpur | 185 | 114 |
14 | Government Senior secondary maanteshari school – Kila Bharatpur | 323 | 70 |
15 | Government girls school Bachamadi Bharatpur | 272 | 115 |
Total | 4327 | 1431 |