File photo: Schoolchildren participate in the opening ceremony of the International Toilet Festival in New Delhi. (Agence France-Presse)
With four days to India's 69th Independence Day, the government today said that 87 per cent of schools have been provided with toilets pledged under the
Swachh Vidyalaya initiative in the last one year.
"As on August 4, 2015, 3.64 lakh toilets have been constructed," Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. The target is to construct 4.19 lakh toilets.
In his first Independence Day speech as the Prime Minister last year, Narendra Modi had promised toilets in all schools within a year, more so as lack of such facilities were keeping girl students away from schools in many pockets in the country.
The states and union territories, public sector undertakings from 15 central ministries and more than 10 private sector entities are involved in construction of toilets in schools, Ms Irani said in her reply.
She said the progress was being monitored on a continuous basis at the national level.
Besides, meetings and video conferences have been held with state chief secretaries, education secretaries, state project directors of
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and also with central ministries and central Public Sector Undertakings, she added.
"In addition to this, about 310 central observers were deputed to visit districts to review the progress of the
Swachh Vidyalaya Initiative," she said.
In an earlier reply in Parliament, the minister had also informed that states and nion Territories such as Andaman and Nicobar, Daman & Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Kerala, Puducherry and Sikkim have already achieved 100 per cent target.
States which are close to achieving the target are Gujarat and Karnataka.