leading from the front, growing with the...
TRANSCRIPT
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In search of models and approaches to address the issue of sustainability of WASH in School
Programme, innovative thinking is often highlighted. However, the age old tested doctrine of
people’s initiative can also prove to be equally effective – as demonstrated by Sura Kanya Balika
Vidyalaya.
With around 2000 students and 70 staffs, Sura Kanya is hard pressed for resources to provide for this
huge strength. Government aids are exhausted to meet other priorities and WASH, as usual, takes a
back seat. Teachers and parents are aware that as a girls’ school, WASH deserves to be considered
with due importance. But the issue time and again boils down to paucity of funds.
“Prior to the intervention by GOAL WinS Programme, student toilet ratio was dismal” says Ganga
Majumder, one of the teachers coordinating Child Cabinet and WASH issues in the school. “With
such a large number of students queues outside the toilets during recess were regular scenes.
Besides, being, maintaining and cleaning them used a massive challenge. Al these contributed to the
aversion of students towards using the toilets in the school” she adds.
This sentiment is echoed by Mithu Sarkar, whose daughter is a student of Cass 7. “My daughter used
refrain from consuming sufficient water in order to avoid using the toilet. Imagine the plight of little
girls who were avoiding using toilets during school hours which was paving the way for further
health complications” she says.
At this point the intervention of GOAL and CLPOA installed additional toilet blocks with facilities or
running water to ease the pressure on the existing setup. In addition, water purifiers were installed
to give the students access to safe water during school hours.
LeadingfromtheFront,GrowingwiththeTeam
ProactiveapproachbyMTAprovidesasustainablesolutiontoaddressresourcecrunchformaintenanceofWASHfacilities
MTA meeting attended by mothers and teachers being conducted by the Headmistress
While the infrastructural issue was taken care through this
intervention, maintenance remained a challenge.
The school authorities tried casual sweepers. But this
arrangement did not work as their services were not available in
the afternoon hours, when it was most required. Hence, even
after investment in resources, the ground realities did not
improve much for the students of Sura Kanya Balika Vidyalaya.
“At that point, we were really worried and desperately wanted to
stitch together a robust maintenance plan as we were seeing that
the entire time and effort invested to improve the WASH scenario
of the school going to waste” says Debjani Datta Ray, the
headmistress. “Already pressed for funds to run the mandatory
and regular requirements of the school, we could not find of any
alternative avenue of generating resources” she explains.
“It was then that a section of the guardians mooted a proposal to
mobilize the funds to employ a fulltime person for maintaining
the toilet units” she says. Bound by the provisions of RTE Act, the
school authorities cannot receive any money from students.
Hence, we were skeptical of our role in this scheme” she says.
“If this was the problem from the point of view of school
authorities, we had our own set of issues” joins Sudipta Das
another mother of a student. “While many guardians were willing
to contribute to form a corpus for maintenance, there were as
sizable portion who considered that being a government school, it
was the responsibility of the government to ensure that the facilities in the school are maintained
properly” she says. “It took a lot of discussion and convincing to win them over and make them a
part of our plan. However, till date, all dissidents have not fallen in line. Though we continue our
effort to convince them to contribute” she says.
“In fact, the initiative of GOAL and CLPOA through which the new toilet blocks and water facilities
were installed helped our cause. We could site this example and convince a large number of people
to see the point that the government alone cannot do everything. It requires support and
cooperation from other sections as well. If the NGOs can invest the money for construction, why
can’t we chip in our small contributions to maintain it. Ultimately it is all for the benefit of our
daughters! Isn’t it?” ‐ Smt Das adds.
When a majority of the guardians subscribed to the proposal, a committee was formed to maintain
the accounts and organize the collection. One guardian from each class assumed the responsibility
of collecting the subscription from other guardians and another set took to charge of maintaining
the books. The school was just required to prove the safe custody of the money. Thus a structured
set up was formed and a formal proposal explaining the entire arrangement was placed before the
managing committee for approval.
“The fund provided by the
guardians have helped the
school without which we were
severely challenged to
maintain facilities installed
under the WinS project”
DebjaniDattaRayHeadmistress
SuraKanyaBalikaVidyalaya
On receiving the formal approval of the managing committee, the
committee started functioning and accordingly the school
appointed a full time cleaner who was entrusted the duty of
maintaining the toilet blocks in addition to providing cleaning
services in emergency for students.
Under this arrangement, the employee thoroughly cleans the toilets
in the toilet twice a day in the before commencement of the
morning and afternoon session. In addition cleaning services are
also available after recess. This ensures that all the toilet blocks are
maintained properly and girls have access to clean toilet facilities
throughout the school hours. The teachers and child cabinet
members oversee this operation as per scheduled duty allocation.
“We know that a section of the guardians have disassociated
themselves from this collective initiative. However, since a large
majority of the guardians are united, this system will continue to
work perfectly” opines Smt. Sarkar.
This initiative of providing a sustainable maintenance regime for the
school wash facilities had a huge impact on the overall environment
of the school. General cleanliness of the school in addition to the
WASH facilities grabs your attention as soon as you enter the
premises. The teachers including the headmistress have been toiling
tirelessly and the students are behaving in a responsible manner. As
a result the school was selected for the Nirmal Vidyalaya Purashkar.
“Everybody is happy as recognition is a reason to rejoice. However this is also an occasion to remind
ourselves of our responsibilities and take the oath of rededicating ourselves to our duties” says the
Headmistress as she signs off to resume her busy schedule.
“The initiative of the guardians’
body will ensure a sustainable fund
to meet maintenance expenses”
MithuSarkarMemberMotherTeacherAssociation