An effort towards providing Running water supply to

all Government primary schools in District Mainpuri

Eesha Priya, IAS

Rishi Raj, IAS

Keywords

NFHS, WASH, UNICEF, SSA, Gram Pradhan, running water, SBM

Abstract
The present article is an effort towards finding a midpoint between the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of achieving universal primary
education, promoting gender equality and reducing child mortality through
implementation of WASH framework and ensuring creation of necessary physical
infrastructure in government primary schools in Mainpuri district amidst
competing demands of grassroot development and limited fund availability. On
understanding the scope of the problem, “Running water availability” was
identified as the significant element in fulfillment of the WASH framework. Given
the covid-19 pandemic scenario, qualitative survey methods were used to assess
the efficacy of interventions.

Introduction
Mainpuri district, the erstwhile land of Maharaja Tez Singh, lies in the Agra
division of Uttar Pradesh state. The residents of the district are primarily pastoral
and district boast of a primarily agriculture based economy. As per census 2011,

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average literacy rate of the district was 75.99%, wherein male literacy corresponds
to 84.53% and female literacy is 66.30%. The vast difference in male and female
literacy levels in the district portrays a similar picture as that of India on an
average. The literacy levels for India stands at 74.04% with male literacy at
82.14% and female literacy at 65.46%.As per NFHS-4 survey, in Mainpuri
women with 10 or more years of schooling correspond to 35.5 % in rural areas and
a total 38.8%. Percentage of female population in Mainpuri district at the age of 6
years and above who have ever attended school is 71.8 % in rural areas and a total
72.6%. The vast disparity in male female literacy and years of schooling in
Mainpuri gains special significance in the wake of recent affirmative policy
interventions undertaken by the state.

A major policy intervention in form of the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan was

launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in September 2014 to
meet the Right to Education Act’s mandate that all schools must have separate
toilets for boys and girls. Lack of dedicated funds, poor maintenance and poor
water availability in toilets were identified as major challenges, and central public
sector enterprises (CPSEs) were roped in to bridge the gap over a one-year period.
Policy framework for construction of separate toilets for girls in all government
schools across India was indeed a milestone towards encouraging female
education. However, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)
submitted a report in September 2020 on the performance of this program.
Public sector units claimed to have constructed 1.4 lakh toilets in government
schools as part of a Right to Education project, but almost 40% of those
surveyed were found to be non-existent, partially constructed, or unused.
Over 70% did not have running water facilities in the toilets, while 75% were
not being maintained hygienically. The objective of providing separate toilets

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for boys and girls was not fulfilled in 27% of the schools. Providing adequate
levels of water supply, sanitation and hygiene in schools is of direct relevance to
the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals of achieving universal
primary education, promoting gender equality and reducing child mortality.

In another major policy intervention, The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has
launched a 100-days campaign under the Jal Jeevan Mission. The campaign seeks
to provide piped water supply to schools and Anganwadi centers. National Jal
Jeevan Mission has reached out to States/ UTs to ensure that during this campaign,
Gram Sabhas are convened at the earliest to pass a resolution for providing safe
water in all schools, anganwadi centers and other public institutions in the village
in the next 100 days. These facilities will be operated and maintained by the Gram
Panchayat and/ or its sub-committee i.e., Village Water & Sanitation Committee or
Paani Samiti. The lack of dedicated funds for this campaign has left its success to
the will of Gram Panchayats and its elected representatives.

Material & Methods

Providing potable running water to primary schools is a very significant

component in ensuring universal education especially in the rural hinterlands.
Running water supply, sanitation and hygiene in schools directly contribute to the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of achieving universal primary
education, promoting gender equality and reducing child mortality.

5 of the 10 top killer diseases of children aged 1-5 in rural areas are related to
water and sanitation. Due to poor water and sanitation facilities schools end up
becoming unsafe community environments were diseases like diarrhoea, trachoma,
schistosomiasis, scabies, guinea worm etc. are transmitted. One of the major

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problems faced by thousands of schools going children are infections by parasites
and flukes. These parasites consume nutrients from the infected children bringing
about or aggravating malnutrition and retarding children's physical development.
They also destroy tissues and organs on which they live causing pain and various
health problems. All of these have compromised children's attendance and
performance at school and, not uncommonly, can result in death. About 0.6-0.7
million children around the world die of diarrhoea every year.

Research shows that being hydrated can improve children’s memory and attention
and can help them think better. Despite the many health benefits associated with
drinking water and being hydrated, research shows that more than 1 in 5 children
and adolescents do not drink any water during the day (Rosinger 2019).

In terms of gender, Girls and boys are likely to be affected in different ways by
inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in schools, and this may
contribute to unequal learning opportunities. Sometimes, girls and female teachers
are more affected than boys because of lack of sanitary facilities. It means that they
cannot attend school during menstruation. When a girl reaches puberty, access to a
safe, separate toilet with running water can make the much-needed difference.
They can clean and wash themselves during menstruation and not absent
themselves on the monthly period days. Irregular attendance can lead to lower
grades and may, eventually, mean that the girl drops out of school altogether.
[ Domestic WaterAid WSSCC,2013]1

“The United Nations General Assembly in 2010 explicitly recognized water and
sanitation as human rights that are essential for the full enjoyment of life and all
human rights”. This was significant towards achieving SDG 6: “Ensure access to
water and sanitation for all by 2030.” Also the ‘human rights to water and
sanitation’ are at the very core of UNICEF mandate for children. Children need
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WASH – water, sanitation and hygiene – to survive and thrive, wherein Water
needs to be viewed in relation to ‘safety, sustainability and accesses. Sanitation
needs to be ensured in coherence with ‘social norms, access and sustainability’ and
Hygiene entails ‘more focus on supporting others to promote behavioral
change.’[UNICEF, 2016]2

10 areas that have been identified wherein WASH can plausibly have a strong
impact are diarrhoea, nutrition, complementary food hygiene, female psychosocial
stress, violence, maternal and newborn health, menstrual hygiene management,
school attendance, oral vaccine performance, and neglected tropical diseases.
[ Mills& Cummings, 2016]3 . Implementation of WASH framework in schools
would require an enabling environment to strengthen systemic capacity, working
inter- sectorally and promoting people’s participation towards behavioral change.
All government education policies need to include funding and plans to provide
adequate sanitation in all schools including separate toilets for boys and girls,
accessible for disabled students, hand washing facilities and facilities for menstrual
hygiene management. Also, hygiene promotion could be included in the teacher
training curriculum for all teachers.

Mission Kayakalp launched by Govt. of Uttar Pradesh envisages to equip all

schools in the state on 14 parameters like blackboard, electricity, ramp, etc. to
more specific ones like separate toilet for girls, running water in kitchen and toilet,
multiple handwash and disabled friendly toilet. The 100-day campaign guideline
issued by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Gov.of India to provide piped water supply in
aganwadis and schools under ‘Jal jeevan Mission - Har Ghar Jal’ illustrates that in
villages with piped water supply system, the network should be extended to
provide tap connections to aganwadis and schools. In villages with no proposed
water supply system in the current year, standalone tap water supply scheme need

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to be developed and retrofitting to be provided for toilets and water to be provided
for midday meal.

Given the vast range of developmental goals that need to be achieved, the
world is increasingly shifting towards quick wins. Quick wins entail low cost
effective and easily implementable solutions which can bring desirable outcomes
within a small span of time.

For the purpose of this research, qualitative survey methods like primary
interview, focused group discussion, in-depth interview with key players and
priority problem mapping were used. Given the covid-19 pandemic scenario,
quantitative analysis based on variables like increase in attendance, lower
absenteeism couldnot be assessed, as the schools didn’t open for the entire year.

Research Question
The research was oriented on the following research questions:

1. Is running water component a significant requirement for primary schools?

2. What would be low cost, effective and durable solution to provide running
water to schools?

1.Understanding the scope of Problem: Is running water

component a significant requirement for primary schools?
To understand the scope of problem that entail lack of water, sanitation and
hygiene in schools, we resorted to a number of survey tools.

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 1.1 In depth Interview with BSA :

An in-depth interview with the Basic shiksha Adhikari (District Education

Officer), helped understand the hurdles in implementing WASH framework in
schools. Lack of dedicated funds for the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan and Jal
Jeevan Mission at the policy level have led to uneven implementation of these
much-needed well-meaning critical policy interventions. The urgency associated
with these critical policies at the policy design level somehow get diluted in
absence of dedicated funds and lack of key information at the policy
implementation level as to why the implementation of the policy is necessary in the
first place. The only annual funds that the schools receive is in form of composite
grants under the samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan, based on last year’s enrollment. In
this financial year, 56 schools in the district received a composite grant amount of
Rs 12,500, 1794 schools received an amount of Rs25,000, 324 schools received an
amount of Rs 50000, and 8 schools received a grant amount of 75,000. The list of
permissible works that can be done from the grant money include multiple
handwash system, teaching kits like science kit, math kit, painting and repairs etc.

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The other source of funds are the funds provided by the local bodies. The extent to
which these funds are used for the upliftment of school infrastructure depends on
the willingness of the local body representatives. The District Mainpuri has a
Nagar Palika Parishad and 5 Nagar Panchayats As the level of urbanization is poor,
the main source of funding for these urban bodies are the state finance commission
funds. Given the vast priorities of urbanization, schools in the town areas suffer
from neglect and wanting in basic infrastructure like toilets, blackboards etc. On
the contrary, the State finance commission money has been spent more generously
by the Panchayats on school infrastructure like interlocking of pathways, toilets,
blackboards, boundary walls etc. However, of late, the mandate of Panchayats has
shifted to building Panchayat Ghars under the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan,
which has led to tapering of funds for enhancing school infrastructure. Thus,
though there is a realization as to the importance of WASH framework for schools,
there is a dearth of funds for implementing the same.

1.2 Key Informant Interview with DPRO:

A key informant interview with District Panchayati Raj Officer (DPRO) was
conducted to understand the nitty gritty of fund availability with the Gram
Panchayats. The Gram Panchayats in the district receive tied and untied funds from
the fourteenth and fifteenth central finance commission and untied funds from the
fifth state finance commission. The Gram Panchayats substantially depend on these
funds to carry out grassroot development. Some Gram Panchayats that have a
regular income source and undergo regular audit also receive a Performance
Incentive Grant Fund (PIGF) from world bank. Besides the above, Gram
Panchayats receive funds under three heads for construction of individual and
community toilets namely SBM, EBR and PIGF. However, these are targeted
funds that cannot be spent on school infrastructure. In district Mainpuri, most

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Gram panchayats receive negligible earnings from local resources and hence they
are mostly dependent on finance commission funds to fulfill local developmental
needs. Central and finance commission funds come in 4 installments every quarter.
In financial year 20-21, District Mainpuri received INR 3854.47 lakhs from
central finance commission and INR 3749.10 lakhs from state finance commission
for a total of 552 Gram Panchayats. These funds were directly transferred to the
Gram Panchayats and expenditure was incurred as per the Gram Panchayat
Development Plan (GPDP), based on local developmental needs, under the
leadership of the Gram Pradhan.

Under increased thrust on health and hygiene especially among school going
children, about 30 schools under Gram Panchayats were identified that did not
have even a single toilet. Pradhan in these Panchayats were coaxed into
constructing toilets in these schools in this financial year. By the end of the present
financial year 2020-21, all government primary schools in District Mainpuri would
be equipped with toilet facilities.

1.2 Focused Group Discussion with Pradhans:

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Given the direct fund inflow from finance commission and revenue generated from
local resources, the Pradhans hold the key to developmental initiatives at the Gram
Panchayat level. A focused group discussion with the pradhans along with priority
problem mapping was conducted so as to assess the priorities attached to school
infrastructure by the Gram pradhans. While all Pradhans accepted that
enhancement of school infrastructure is a significant developmental agenda, they
cited dearth of sufficient funds to implement the same. Pradhans were asked to rate
their priorities vis a vis the availability of funds. A priority problem mapping
exercise was carried out to better comprehend the priorities of these elected
representatives for grassroot development. The priority was given to
RCC/interlocked roads followed by drains for grey water outlet. The priority like
construction of school boundary and school amenities enhancement were placed at
fifth and sixth priority by the Gram Panchayats.

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 Fig1: Priority Problem Mapping of developmental needs by Gram Pradhan

This very exercise throws ample light on the significance attached to school
infrastructure by Gram Pradhans in District Mainpuri viz a viz competing
populistic developmental initiatives. Lack of community ownership for schools
had resulted in low willingness by Pradhans to spend on school infrastructure.

1.4 Structured interview with teachers & students:

A structured interview by means of online google link was conducted for teachers
and students at government primary schools so as to understand the scope of the
problem. For the sake of ease of comprehension, the questionnaire was prepared in
Hindi. A few significant responses by teachers and students regarding easily
accessible water source available in the school premises that helped throw light on

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the possible solution to achieve WASH framework in government primary schools
are as follows: -

Fig2:
What is easily accessible water source for students?

Majority of students responded India mark handpump was the most common
source of water accessible to them in the government school. This revelation
throws light on the single point source of water available to students in government
schools and highlights the limitations faced especially by girl students in carrying
water to toilets, queueing for washing hands etc.

Also, majority of teachers responded that India mark handpump was the most
common water source accessible to them in school.

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 Fig3: What is easily accessible water source for teachers?

Intervention: What would be low cost, effective and durable

solution to provide running water to schools?
Based on the discussion with Pradhans, DPRO and BSA, we could infer that
though there is a willingness towards promoting hygiene and sanitation, Pradhans
are reluctant to spend on these priorities fearing high construction costs. Spending
on school infrastructure may entail substantial cut in spending on populistic
developmental initiatives like RCC, interlocking etc. The problem once identified
was discussed with Executive Engineer, Rural Engineering Department. The
emphasis was on developing a low cost yet effective running water system for the
schools which could be connected to the Mid-day Meal kitchen, toilets and
multiple handwash. Accordingly, a low cost yet durable and optimal estimate was
prepared as shown in the figure below.

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Fig 4: Estimate for running water component in school

Regular coordination meetings were conducted with officials of Panchayat and

Basic Shiksha Department to ensure smooth implementation. The composite grants
received by the schools and state finance commission grant were converged and an
ambitious scheme of equipping all 1897 schools of the district with running water
component within 100 days was envisaged.

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15
retrofitted with a submersible pump. An overhead tank was installed and pipelines
were fitted to provide for a multiple handwash, tap water in toilets and mid-day
meal kitchen.

Finding and Analysis:

Based on the structured questionnaire prepared in Hindi for students and teachers,
responses from both teachers and students before and after intervention was
compiled to deduce the following findings:

Response before and after Intervention:

Fig 5(a): Student response -Is potable drinking water available in school?

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 Fig 5(b): Teacher response -Is potable drinking water available in school?

From Fig5(a)&(b), it is evident that before intervention 72%(Students) and 67%

(Teachers) relied on handpump for potable drinking water in schools. However,
after intervention only 27%(Students) and 25%(Teachers) still relied on the
handpumps while 67% students and 73% teachers affirmed that they used tap
connection for potable water in their schools.

Fig 6(a): Student Response-What do you use for washing hands?

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 Fig 6(b): Teacher Response-What do you use for washing hands?

In fig6(a) &(b) 70% students and 67% teachers before intervention relied on hand
pumps for washing hands while after intervention 52% students and 70% teachers
relied on tap water for washing hands. After intervention the usage of tap water for
handwash has increased to about 250% for students and about 360% for teachers.

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 Fig 7(a): Student Response-Is water available in toilet?

-*

Fig 7(b): Teacher Response-Is water available in toilet?

A similar before and after change story in handwash and hygiene aspect for both
teachers and students is reflected in the Fig7 (a)&(b). The dependence on
handpump for toilet purposes has reduced, 81% teachers and 80% students
affirmed that tap water connection was available in toilets in their schools. This
would further lead to increased usage of toilets in the school premises which could
in turn reduce absenteeism especially among female students and staff.

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Fig 8(a): Student Response-What is the easily accessible water source in school?

Fig 8(b): Teacher Response-What is the easily accessible water source in school?

The above data in Fig 8(a)&(b) depicts that ease of access through taps as viewed
by students has increased by about 195% and by 176% in case of teachers. This
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clearly shows the positive impact of the novel intervention sought to provide
running water supply in schools.

Limitations of Study
1. Qualitative Study: The study is based on primary responses of various
stakeholders to the problem under study. As the primary schools did not
open for the entire year during the implementation of the intervention,
quantitative study based on parameters like increase in attendance, reduction
in absenteeism etc could not be carried out to better comprehend the efficacy
of the intervention.
2. Compromise on Material Quality: A model estimate for intervention was
provided to the Pradhans and gazetted principals of inter colleges were
deputed to cross check the completion of work, however, Pradhans in many
a cases compromised for a lower quality material.
3. Behavioral issues: The study tries to provide infrastructural support to
students especially girls to enable them to maintain sanitation and hygiene,
however, making WASH framework a part of day-to-day life is a behavioral
change that can come only with time and persuasion.
4. Fund Deficit: Due to competing demands at grassroots, teachers and
pradhans could only partially implement the intervention, with some of the
schools still wanting a tap supply to their kitchens.
5. Cognitive issues: As schools did not open, the survey was carried out online
by sharing a google link carrying the questionnaire with teachers and
students. Some students could not understand the objective of the question
being asked and hence some responses were subject to their limited
understanding of the question.

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6. Conclusion

Community Resources like school infrastructure can only be upgraded by

assertive community ownership. If Gram Panchayats continue to view them
as departmental assets, notable enhancement in school infrastructure would
be a distant goal. However, when provided with a low cost, effective
solution to upgradation of running water and toilet infrastructure in schools,
Pradhans came forward and contributed to completion of near 100% running
water provision and toilets in all government primary schools across the
districts. It was indeed a notable feat achieved in a mission mode within a
period of 100 days!
At the same time, we need to realize that mere creating supportive
infrastructure can only partly contribute to the realization of the WASH
framework. Sustainable behavioral changes need to be brought about
through dedicated IEC mechanisms. In this context a series of videos of need

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 to wash hands, promote menstrual hygiene and promoting usage of toilets
were circulated among school children through various online platforms.
The ongoing thrust on hygiene in the Swachh Bharat Mission Campaign
added to the goal of bringing about long term behavioral change.
The children especially girls of district Mainpuri would indeed get an
undeniable opportunity to avail a healthy, hygienic and safe school
environment in government primary schools due to dedicated efforts of
Gram Pradhans and motivational collaboration of Basic education and
Panchayati Raj Department. One and all worked in a mission mode towards
the dream of universal primary education, promoting gender equality and
reducing child mortality through implementation of WASH framework in
government schools of District Mainpuri.

References
1.We Can’t Wait :A report on sanitation and hygiene for women and girls by
Domestos WaterAid WSSCC,2013

2.Strategy for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2016–2030, 2016

3.The impact of water, sanitation and hygiene of key health and social outcomes:
Review of Evidence : Joanna Esteves Mills & Oliver Cumming ,2016

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