Covid19 has provided us an opportunity to take serious steps to ensure the facilities of drinking water supply and sanitation facilities in and around our schools and Anganwadi Centers(AWCs). From my own experience I can safely say many of our schools , both goverment and private and our AWCs lack these two f basic facilities and even where these are physically present their maintenance is so poor that kids and even older ones seldom use them due to the amount of filth deposited at such facilities. Even Swaksh Bharat Abhiyan has not made any advancement this to any significant level. Most of the govt schools and AWCs where these facilities are physically present no provision , either financial or manpower has been made for their maintenance. Many of the AWCs are run in a single room private buildings with no facilities , even there is no provision for fresh air. Similarly the physical environment in which these govt institutions are situated in not conducive to safe health. More and more can be written on this issue of availability of facilities but my purpose is not to go into details. It's suffice to say these facilities are not available or if available are in the poor shape.
If we honestly admit this state of affairs we must start to revamp the situation before going to open the schools. Funds must be flooded for them , facilities must be erected before the opening of the institutions keeping in mind the need of girl children and statutory provisions with strong penal provisions must be enforced to ensure the availability and cleanness. At the same time teachers/Anganwari Workers (AWWs) must be trained to ensure them, to keep kids clean and healthy This training can be provided online by creating a pool of teachers and AWWs . A lot can be discussed and devised but steps must be taken before any decision to open the schools.