Lack of toilets is forcing girls to drop out of schools in Chhattisgarh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech impressed many, but for some, his statement that most schools in India do not have toilets served as a painful reminder of harsh realities. "I felt as if the prime minister was talking about me," says Sunita*, 13, who lives in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh. "No one understands what girls here have to undergo in these schools without toilets." Sunita was referring to what girls across her state face every day, but her own story is enough to expose a critical lacuna in our schooling system.
Until a year ago, Sunita studied in Class VII in a government school. The school does not have toilets for girls.
They have to go to some ruins nearby to relieve themselves. Girls avoid going there alone and usually take a friend along. Unfortunately, one day Sunita had to go there alone. When she was relieving herself, some boys turned up and grabbed her. They had probably been keeping an eye on the movement of girls. Sunita was lucky as some other girls arrived right then and raised an alarm. The boys fled and Sunita was saved.
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