Impacts of Hygiene Standards and Accessibility to Lavatories on Educational Outcomes in India

Abstract

India is the most populous nation, has the largest democracy, and is one of the fastest-expanding economies. Education in India depends on several socio-economic factors: parental occupation, financial well-being, and access to modern amenities and facilities such as transportation, media, safety, and hygiene. 

There are approximately 11,96,265 government schools in India that offer primary and secondary education however, approximately 35 million children in India do not attend school. The dropout rate in India at the secondary level is 12.6% while at the primary level, it is 3%. In India there are around 12,000 government schools that do not have a washroom, this creates a barrier to education. (Kayser, Rao, Jose and Raj, 2019).  

In India school is approximately for 7 hours, having to go without access to sanitation or hygienic washrooms becomes difficult for children in rural areas. A total of 21,851 girls and 20,084 boys had dropped out of school the previous year (Mehta, 2022). After reaching pubescence, having no access to clean washrooms creates a roadblock for girls. The right to water and sanitation is a fundamental human right (Ortiz-Correa, Filho and Dinar, 2016). 

Inequality in access to sanitation is directly related to inequality in access to education and healthcare. Due to lack of access to proper hygiene and sanitation in rural schools amongst other factors and the advantages of increase in income by domestic labor, parents are unable to see the advantage of education amongst youth in rural India (Jain, Agarwal, Billaiya & Devi 2017).