Over 36,000 primary schools have no drinking water facility: Government

NEW DELHI: More than 36,000 primary schools across the country do not have drinking water facilities, the ministry of education said in response to a question in the Parliament.

The ministry also revealed that over 12,000 primary schools did not have access to toilet facilities and over 17,000 schools do not have school buildings.

Despite the absence of such basic facilities in a large number of schools across states, budget 2021 has cut Rs 7,000 crore from the outlay for the main central scheme for school education, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

The SSA is funded by the Centre and states in a 60:40 ratio in the case of most states and 90:10 for the 8 northeastern and three Himalayan states.

Andhra Pradesh has the most number of schools without drinking water facilities with 6,575 schools. Rajasthan has 4, 694 schools with no drinking water facility and Meghalaya has 3,642. These are the five states with the maximum number of schools without these amenities

In terms of access to toilets, Uttar Pradesh is the worst position with 1,708 primary schools without the facility. Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh make up the five states with the worst record for toilet access for primary schools.

Jammu and Kashmir has the most primary sections without buildings followed by Bihar and West Bengal. Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan make up the top five worst performers.

Write to us at news@careers360.com.