School Sanitation & Hygiene Education
School Sanitation and Hygiene Education, widely known as SSHE, is a comprehensive programme to ensure child friendly water supply, toilet and hand washing facilities in the schools and promote behavioral change by hygiene education. SSHE not only ensures child’s right to have healthy and clean environment but also leads to an effective learning and enrolment of girls in particular, and reduce diseases and worm infestation. SSHE was introduced in the Central Rural Sanitation Programme in 1999.
At present, it is being implemented under Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) and given special thrust by following the proven route of teacher-children-family-community where child is a change-agent playing an effective role on sustained basis to spread the message of improved sanitary and healthy practices.
1. The Goals
• In rural areas, cover schools by March 2013 and Anganwadis by March 2013, with sanitation facilities and promote hygiene education and sanitary habits among students. (refer below for the revised timelines over the years to achieve this goal)
• Separate toilet facilities for girls in co-ed schools
• To ensure proper Operation & Maintenance of the facilities created
• To impart hygiene education to children
2. Who are Involved in SSHE
• Students and Teachers
• Parents and Aaganwadi workers
• Government Department such as Education, Health, Panchayat & Rural Development, Women and Child Development, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), and some external support agencies like UNICEFD etc.
• Community groups such as Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)/ Gram Panchayats (GPs), School Management Committee, School WatSan Committee, Parent Teacher Association, Village Education Committee
• NGOs and Self Helf Groups
3. Norms for School Toilet Design
Note: All norms listed below are mandatory
General/Common Norms
1 Toilet should have been constructed in the school premises.
2 Access to the toilet must be open and without any hindrances.
3 There should be a separate Toilet Complex for Girls in the School.
4 There should be a separate Toilet Complex for Boys in the School.
5 Ratio of Central and state government funding in the Total Sanitation Campaign Project: 70: 30. Unit cost Rs 35,000 and Rs 38,300 for hilly areas. Separate funding should be available for separate toilets for girls and boys.
6 State/ UT governments, Parents’-Teachers Associations and panchayats are free to contribute for their own resources.
7 Toilet must have a Leach Pit for disposing of wastewater
8 Toilet complex site should be more than 10.0 meters away from the drinking water well or the hand pump of the school.
9 2.5 to 5.0 cm size holes in the masonry of the soak-pit at the time of toilet construction must be done so that water and gas collected get absorbed into the soil.
Girls Toilet
10 One toilet and three urinals for 40 girls + Lady Teacher
11 1 Wash Tap in each Girls Toilet located conveniently for use by both child and adult
12 At least 2 Clothes Hanging hooks at different child accessible heights – suitable for a 5 year old child and an adult
13 A niche in each girls toilet for keeping sanitary Napkins should be provided
14 There should be 1 opening for light/ventilation in each toilet of size 450 -450 mm at a height that allows sunlight to penetrate for self drying
15 Toilets must have 1 door in each WC at a height of 2100 mm with child accessible latching arrangement
Girls Urinal
16 There must be one urinal for every 20 girls with partitions with two minutes of waiting time for using the facility at peak hours.
17 There should be 1 opening for light/ventilation in each urinal that allows sunlight to penetrate for self drying.
18 There must be 1 Screen door for each urinal at 1500mm height with child accessible latching arrangement.
Boys Toilet
19 One squatting pan and three urinals for 80 boys + Male teacher
20 1 Wash Tap in each Boys Toilet located conveniently for use by both child and adult
21 At least 2 Clothes Hanging hooks at different child accessible heights – suitable for a 5 year old child and an adult
22 There should be 1 opening for light/ventilation in each toilet of size 450 -450 mm at a height that allows sunlight to penetrate for self drying.
23 Toilets must have 1 door in each WC at a height of 2100 mm with child accessible latching arrangement.
Boys Urinal
24 1 urinal for every 20 boys + male teacher with partitions
25 There must be 1 opening for light/ventilation in each urinal that allows sunlight to penetrate for self drying
Children with Special Needs
26 A low level of hand rail must be provided in the toilet
27 Ramp facility should be provided
28 The level of stool must be raised in case of Indian pan
29 There should be a pipe attached to the tap for self-cleaning as the child will be holding the hand rail
Hand Washing
30 There must be a minimum of 2 (one Wash Tap for every 20 children) provided in toilets/urinals either as common/separate in girls and boys blocks.
31 Hand washing and cleaning material like soap, mug, brush, phenyl must be always available in the toilet
32 1 soap tray with every two wash taps should be always available
33 A minimum of 500 litres wash water storage tank capacity should be available for a school of up to 100 children? (Subsequent calculation @ 5 litres per child)?
34 For Hand Wash- Mid Day Meal Scheme Kitchen there must be a min of 3 taps provided (one for every 20 children)
4. SSHE: Over the Years Timelines for Total Coverage in Schools in Rural Areas
1st Target Date • By 2005-06 (Ref: http://ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/pdf/SchToiletDesign_0.pdf
2nd Target Date • End of 2006-07 (XI Plan Approach Paper DDWS)
3rd Target Date • March 2008 (TSC –DDWS)
4th Target Date • March 2012 (Agatha Sangma in Parliament on Dec 17, 2010; New TSC Guidelines (http://www.ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/TSCGUIDELINES-June2010.pdf)
5th Target Date • March 2013 (DDWS SSHE portal) (Download full report An Inclusive Approach for School Sanitation and Hygiene Education by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India)
5. Allocation Vs Release of Funds for School Sanitation by Govt of India
TSC has made provision for toilet facility and hygiene education in all types of Government Rural Schools i.e. Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools.
Funding for Schools as Per New TSC Guidelines – June 2010 (http://www.ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/TSCGUIDELINES-June2010.pdf)
• Funding for School Sanitation in a TSC Project is provided by the Central and State Government in the ratio of 70:30.
• The Central assistance per unit will be restricted to 70 percent for a unit cost of Rs.35,000/‐ (Rs. 38,500 in case of hilly and difficult areas) with effect from 1st April 2010.
• Separate toilets for girls and boys should be provided in all co‐educational schools, which are to be treated as two separate units and each unit is entitled to Central assistance.
• The number of toilet units to be constructed should be adequate to meet the requirements of the school as per the strength of the students attending the school. State/UT Governments, Parent‐Teachers Association and Panchayats are free to contribute from their own resources over and above the prescribed amount.
Lack of adequate sanitation and the linked burden of diseases take an immense toll on life in India.
Children are particularly vulnerable; Indian infants make nearly 25% of global diarrhea deaths as per a study in March 2011. (http://www.sify.com/news/indian-infants-make-25-percent-of-global-diarrhea-deaths-news-health-ldjv4jhcecb.html). An estimated 1,000 children die in the country everyday because of diarrhoea alone which means which means 41 children lose their lives every 60 minutes as per India Country Report: CountDown to 2015 Report.
Child under-nutrition, aggravated by diarrheal disease, is estimated to be responsible for 22 percent of the country’s burden of disease (World Bank 2004). Sanitation related illnesses in both children and adults deplete productivity and resources, ultimately contributing to deprivation. As a result, School Water Supply, Sanitation & Hygiene Education has been planned to create healthy schools bringing about behavioral change for lasting impact on children and subsequently the community. Therefore, it is imperative for the Government to effectively monitor the School sanitation progress in order to meet 100% coverage goal by March 2013 before it just becomes yet another calendar date that is revised further…
Source:
• http://ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/pdf/SchToiletDesign_0.pdf
• http://ddws.gov.in/TSC
• http://www.ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/pdf/ImplementationCab_Decision_for_School_and_Anganwadi_Costs.pdf\
• http://www.ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/pdf/LetterState_Secy_on_norms_for_school_toilets.pdf