The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday directed the School Education Secretary to come out with concrete solutions to address complaints of lack of operational toilets, sanitary workers, security staff, functional sanitary napkin vending machines and masonry choolas for safe disposal of the napkins in government schools in Tamil Nadu.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran directed the Secretary to file a comprehensive report in the court by Monday listing out time-bound steps that would be taken by the government to address the complaints, and ordered that the report should be signed by the Secretary herself and not by any of her subordinates.
The orders were passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by the office-bearer of a non-governmental organisation as well as another similar petition filed by the Women’s Advocates Association in the Bench on the basis of a news report carried in The Hindu on September 3 on the menstrual hygiene project in the State.
Three teams of advocates appointed by the High Court for random inspection of toilet facilities at schools in Madurai, Dindigul and Thanjavur districts returned back to the court to state that most of the toilets were not functional, there were no sanitary workers in any of the schools and no funds were allocated by the State for maintaining the toilets.
A team of women advocates, who inspected around 10 schools in Madurai district, told the court that none of the sanitary napkin vending machines and masonry choolas established in the government schools were in working condition and that the napkins distributed to the girl children through Primary Health Centres were not of good quality.
Appalled by the submissions, Mr. Justice Nagamuthu said that he himself stood witness to the poor condition of government schools during a recent visit to his alma mater in Thanjavur district. “The entire school campus is filled with mounds of garbage that I have decided to clean it myself with the help of fellow villagers,” he said.
Referring to a Government Order which had fixed a monthly salary of Rs. 1,300 to Rs. 3,000 for appointment of sanitary workers in government schools, the judge wondered who would prefer to take up such jobs for a paltry pay when the Centre had fixed a minimum wage of Rs. 600 per day for agricultural labourers.
He also stressed the need for constructing compound walls and appointing watchmen in all government schools to prevent anti-social elements from using the campuses for illegal activities after school hours and during holidays besides preventing theft of laptops and other valuables from the school buildings. “We are also told that as many as 39 posts of headmaster are lying vacant in Thanjavur district alone. If this is the state of affairs in just one district, what would be the plight in schools across the State. Still, we do not want to digress to the academic side because the present petitions before us are only with respect to infrastructure,” he added.
A team also found that sanitary napkins issued to students were not of good quality
