Eleven-year-old Vasihnavi N., a class six student of Government Model Primary School in Sonth village in Kalaburagi district in north Karnataka, achieved a difficult task: she convinced her parents to construct a toilet in their house, a demand they had been stubbornly opposing for years.
"I told my parents that I would no longer go to the fields to relieve myself. Initially, they refused citing lack of space to construct a toilet, but later relented,” The foundation stone for the toilet in their home was laid last Friday.
Girls like Vaishnavi, who have brought about a change of heart among parents about hygiene, have brought an unexpected benefit to the school. The district administration has decided to ‘gift’ a compound wall to the school and allow the students to use it as a canvas.
Though a compound wall is a basic facility, the fact that many rural schools do not have one makes this a precious gift.
The district administration has identified 100 such schools.
Three months ago, officials decided to kick off a programme to improve the quality of education by improving hygiene in schools and improving infrastructure, with a clear focus on girl students. The drive for 'SIRI' (prosperity in Kannada), which stands for Support, Initiate, Reach out and Inspire, started aiming for improvements in school and also at home. This involved motivating children to be ‘change-makers’ by persuading their families to construct toilets at home.
In two months, the district saw 30,000 toilets being built as part of the Swachh Bharath Mission. Hephsiba R. Korlapati, chief executive officer of Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat, says the target is to construct 20,000 more.
To motivate more students, the district administration decided to use the performance-based incentive approach and construct compound walls in schools where they had got a good response.
Schools lack these facilities though they are mandatory infrastructure facilities under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. About 33% of the 2,078 government schools in the district do not have a compound wall.
Ms. Korlapati got the idea when she started conducting a radio programme every Friday, which reaches out to 50,000 students. “During the programme, the students told me about the work they had done and also about the infrastructure requirements in their schools, such as compound wall, drinking water and additional classrooms. I told them schools where maximum students convinced their families to build toilets at home would be given the infrastructure they need,” she said. The aim was to ensure that all stakeholders worked together.
The approach worked.
C.S. Mudhol, Block Education Officer, Kalaburagi (North) said 12 girl students in the district went on a hunger strike till their parents agreed to construct a toilet at home. In other cases, students, along with their teachers, apprised village elders about the importance of sanitation.
Over the past one month, 100 schools from 49 Gram Panchayats were shortlisted and construction is expected to be completed this week as November 14 marks Children’s Day .
The campaign, which is being executed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme, has provided employment to villagers for around three weeks, as it takes about 40 people to build each compound wall.
Mr. Mudhol said a compound wall would instil a sense of safety among students and also improve the look of a school.
Ms. Korlapati added that after the wall is constructed and whitewashed, students would be asked to paint them or write proverbs on the theme ‘Every student is an asset and every school should prosper’.
