Schools in remote areas of Gujarat lack basic facilities, including girls' toilets, clean drinking water

Rally to highlight poor infrastructure
in government schools

By Our Representation
A survey by Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad's Dalit rights organization, has revealed that despite Gujarat government claims of one of the best infrastructure facilities compared to rest of India’s schools, things have failed to improve in remote and backward villages. In a representation handed over to the district education officer, the Baal Adhikar Suraksha Samiti, a local NGO working for child rights, has revealed, quoting the survey, how in several of the primary schools there are no separate toilets for girls, there is lack of basic seating facilities for children from classes 1 to 4, and computers, though installed, are not in use.
Carried out in few of the villages of eight talukas of Surendranagar district in order to suggest how things have not improved despite state government-sponsored child education drive in order to improve quality of education, the survey found that the primary school in Kherva village of Patdi taluka has no separate toilet for girls, as a result of which they have go in the open to urinate. In the school in Sadla village of the same taluka, there is no seating arrangement, even ordinary mat-sheet where children of classes 1 to 4 could sit on the floor, are not there. The school does not have a lab, nor does it have a playground.
The school in Bhathariya village of Lakhtar taluka does not have any woman teacher, the children do not get fresh drinking water, there is a toilet which is used only by male teachers, and children are forced to clean it. As for children, they have to go in the open to urinate. Besides, there are not enough classrooms for the primary classes 1 to 8, there is no playground, and there are not enough dishes for children to have midday meal. 

In the school in Kalsar village of Chotila taluka does not have any toilet, there is no laboratory, no clean drinking water facility, and there is no mat for children of classes 1 to 4 to sit on the floor. In the primary school of Jakhan village of Limdi taluka also there is no mat for children of classes 1 to 4 to sit on the floor, there are just five class rooms though the school teaches children of 1 to 8 classes, there is no shed for midday meal scheme, the computers do not work, and there is no facility for clean drinking water.
In the school in village Choki, of Limdi taluka, there is only one teacher who regularly comes to teach, there is no teacher for English and social science subjects, and children do not have any clean drinking water facility. The primary school in Vatavatch village of Sayla taluka does not have any laboratory, there is no facility for clean drinking water, there is no playground, there are five computers but nobody to teach, and villagers generally throw dirt next to the school, hence children complain of stink during school hours.
In the primary school of Sokhda village of Dhrangadhra taluka, the children of classes 1 to 4 do not have any facility to sit on the mat, there is no laboratory, there is no playground, no midday meal shed, and there is no separate room for class 8. In the primary school in Dedadara village of Vadhwan taluka, there is no separate toilet for girls, there is no mat for children to sit, the school is in a dilapidated state, and the computers do not work. In the primary school of Khatadi village of Muli taluka also there is no separate toilet for girls, the laboratory does not have equipment, there is no mat for children, there is no playground, and the school lacks rooms.