Jajarkot, August 12

Lack of female-friendly toilets in schools and other educational institutions has hit girl students in Jajarkot.

Lady teachers and girl students in the district complained that paucity of female-friendly toilets had adversely affected studies.

The district has 458 community schools, 25 institutional schools and three campuses. Many of these schools have separate toilets for females, but they are not female-friendly, according to Education and Coordination Unit, Jajarkot.

Unit Chief Khadak KC said budget was allocated every year for toilet construction, but it had not been utilised. “Toilets in many schools are not in use for want of water.”

Data of the last academic session showed of the 73,500 students, 35,539 are girls in the district. As many as 186 female teachers are working in community schools in the district.

Technical assistant Tilak Bhattarai of the education unit said that girls would miss classes due to lack of female-friendly toilets during menstruation.

Teacher Rekha Shah at Tribhuvan Secondary School said there was a toilet but without water, which had created difficulty for lady teachers and girls. Another teacher Sushma Shah of Tribhuvan Basic School, Risang, said girls missed their classes and lady teachers remained absent during menstruation.

Girl students of Bal Network, Child Club, schools and campuses have been demanding availability of female-friendly toilets with water facilities and sanitary pads, but in vain.

Ashima Shahi at Tribhuvan Secondary School, Khalanga, bemoaned that their pleas for female-friendly toilets had fallen on deaf ears.

Women rights activists in the district say that no government agency has shown interest in building female-friendly toilets.