Bhubaneswar: At a time when the government has been riding high on the ‘success’ of Swachh Bharat Mission, incidents of school children facing hardships in day to day life to attend to nature’s call has come as big shock.
Noted social activist Namrata Chadha in a letter to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has narrated the woes faced by more than 100 students due to lack of proper sanitation and other basic facilities in their residential school.
As many as 140 SC/ST Students of Gadiapada Abasika Sevashram, a residential school near Khajuripada in Kandhamal regularly walk up and down for nearly 4 kms amid dense forests to attend call of nature and bathe notwithstanding poisonous creatures and hilly terrain.
Speaking about what she saw while returning from a training programme of women’s rights defenders in Phulbani, Chadha expressed her shock at the residential school that not only lacks toilets but also portable drinking water and other basic facilities. All the 100 girls and 40 boys of the school have to depend on open defecation and bathe in nearby forest.
In the letter, Chadha has requested the NHRC to intervene and take appropriate action to provide adequate facilities of sanitation and drinking water in the area.