The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to ensure that all tribal and rural areas have separate girls toilets even as the government stated that gender-segregated toilets remain to be constructed in only 4,745 schools out of the 1.4 million schools in the country.
Figures submitted by the Union government to the court indicated that according to the last survey conducted in 2024-25 under the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), out of a total of 1.47 million schools, 97.3% of schools were reported to have functional girls’ toilets.
Pursuant to the top court’s order of January 30 this year holding menstrual hygiene to be a fundamental right, the matter was taken up by the Centre with all states and union territories who pointed out that among the remaining gap of 2.7% (comprising 39,729 schools), a separate girls toilet has been provided in 30,458 schools while work of construction is ongoing in 4,236 schools.
According to the Centre, only 4,745 schools now remain without a segregated girls toilet.
The bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, while permitting the states and union territories to carry out the task, said, “You must focus more on schools in rural and tribal areas where the students hail from poor strata of society.”
{{/usCountry}}The bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, while permitting the states and union territories to carry out the task, said, “You must focus more on schools in rural and tribal areas where the students hail from poor strata of society.”
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Naming states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar where possibility of such schools is more, the bench told the Centre to ensure funding under various government schemes to ensure girl students are not deprived of clean, hygienic toilet and sanitary facilities.
“You must proceed in this direction as there are schools in remote areas in Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar which hardly have proper infrastructure,” the court told Centre as it posted the matter for further consideration on September 29.
Representing the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, the Centre deputed additional solicitors general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati and Archana Pathak Dave to report compliance of court’s January 30 judgment which mandated separate toilets, sanitary pad vending machines, menstrual hygiene corners, separate set of clothes among other facilities for girl students from Classes VI to XII.
The order came on a petition filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur who said that due to lack of menstrual hygiene and supporting facilities in schools, several girl students were forced to discontinue studies or remain absent from classes.