We know children are future of any country. But, future is bleak for them if they do not get safe drinking water, sanitation & hygiene in school. Girls in India drop out of school for a number of reasons. But in many cases, these reasons are directly related to lack of sanitation and personal hygiene and unhygienic toilets at their schools. As girls enter into adolescence appropriate bathroom facilities and clean water become even more critical to stay in school.
30% marginalized women are physically and sexually assaulted to access public toilet According to studies. 70% of teenage girls in Delhi slums experience humiliation every day. Due to a shortage of toilet facility, 23% of adolescent girls drop out from schools. Girls from various government schools in the Capital listed lack of toilets and hygiene as the reasons to drop out of school.
Why do girls drop out of school?
- The obstacles multiply as girls get older. Puberty is a challenging time for girls and the situation is compounded by a lack of sanitation facilities in India.
- Girls at school are often forced to share a common toilet with male students. The threats they suffer as a result of this lack of privacy lead many to miss school or drop out altogether.
- Without separate restroom facilities, girls often drop out of school because they don’t have private restrooms and safe places for sanitary necessities
- Poor sanitary conditions and unhygienic toilets in schools lead to girls falling ill with infections like UTI & missing schools.
- Often, schools have poorly designed facilities for girls, disregarding the consideration for the disposal of menstrual wastes.This results in poor feminine personal hygiene
- About 52% of the female population is of reproductive age and most of them are menstruating every month. The majority of them have no access to clean and safe sanitary products. Or to a clean and private space in which to change menstrual cloths or pads and to wash.
- Lack of appropriate toilet safety essential like sanitary products may push menstruating girls temporarily or sometimes permanently out of school.
Observation :
- As per observation, the lack of sanitation facilities has been a major cause for high dropout rates among girl students. The solution to this is to create toilets in schools and introduce female hygienic products. At the same time devote resources to maintain and clean them regularly.
- United Nations World Toilet Day is observed every year on 19th of November around the globe to address this issue. World Toilet Day is a day to raise awareness and inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. A topic often neglected and shrouded in taboos.
- Brands like PeeSafe have recognized this alarming issue of unhygienic toilets. They have put efforts and their resources and with the help of experts and scientist have developed unique products. PeeSafe portable female hygiene products like toilet seat sanitizer spray and travel toiletries. The toilet seat sanitizer keeps the toilet seat and the surrounding area 99.9% germ-free.
PeeSafe products are available at Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, Shopclues,1mg, and safetykart.com.
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This blog has been written by Anshu Bhatia was first published on SafetyKart on 15th Nov 2017