Parliament Question: Lack of Sanitation Facilities in Schools

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-3759 ANSWERED ON 16.03.2026 Lack of Sanitation Facilities in Schools 3759. Shri Bapi Haldar: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether it is true that 13 per cent schools in the country are devoid of basic sanitation facilities, if so, the reasons for the wide gap in providing basic sanitation facilities in schools; (b) the details of reasons for very low functionality of the raid facilities in north-eastern States like Meghalaya where only 42.7 per cent of schools had a functional hand-washing facility in 2024-25; and (c) the number of schools in the country having water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, State/UT- wise? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (c): As per Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024-25, States/UTs-wise number of schools having drinking water, toilet and hand-wash facility in schools are available at https://www.education.gov.in/en/parl_ques. Education is in the Concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the administrative control of respective State Government and UT Administration. The Department of School Education and Literacy is implementing Samagra Shiksha- an Integrated Scheme for School Education from 2018-19. Samagra Shiksha is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre- school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education. Samagra Shiksha is implemented in partnership with all the States/UTs and financial assistance is provided to all States /UTs including north-eastern States like Meghalaya. The annual plans under Samagra Shiksha are prepared by the States and UTs based on their requirements and priority and this is reflected in their respective Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B). These plans are then appraised and approved/estimated by Project Approval Board (PAB) in consultation with the States and UTs as per the programmatic and financial norms of the scheme. ******