700 Girls And 1 Toilet: How Far Are We From Our Goals Of Women's Education

Women's education has always been a topic of concern and the lack of basic amenities for girls has always discouraged them from pursuing higher education. One such terrible incident from Telangana is a hot topic of discussion in which a school was reported to have one toilet for its 700 female students.

After all the agendas and awareness programs of the government, we are still lacking behind in empowering female education. While parents are realising the importance of education, the lack of facilities is discouraging them to send their girls to schools. A similar incident was brought to the notice of the Telangana High Court where a government school was said to allegedly have a single washroom for the use of 700 girls studying there. The HC recently issued a notice to concerning officers, demanding an answer regarding the entire situation.

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Telangana School One Toilet For 700 Girls

The case is of Government Junior College in Saroornagar which had 700 female students and one dysfunctional toilet for them. Despite multiple protests, boycotts and attempts to raise concerns to the authorities about the lack of amenities in the school, the students never got a response or action. It was not until recently when a law student wrote a letter to Telangana HC highlighting the issue of the school and the court demanded action from concerned officials on March 2.

The incident shows the sad reality of how serious people are about educating women. They talk about teaching and encouraging girls but are not ready to give them the proper support and facilities to grow. It also shows the carelessness of government officials who ignore such important factors when it comes to delivering facilities to the common public. While there are women demanding sanitary pad dispensers and period leaves to create a difference, these girls are still struggling to have a functional washroom in their school.

A point to be noted here is that the lack of infrastructure will increase the cases of using open spaces as toilets which is not just an environmental concern but also a safety issue for them. If a necessity like a toilet is being denied to these girls, how can we expect them to be given equal rights and a bright future? It is important for the government to re-analyse whether their schemes and laws are being implemented properly or not so that women don't have to struggle for such trivial yet important necessities.

Views expressed by the author are their own