Tushar A Majukar By

Express News Service

BELAGAVI: Students of Government Urdu School No 5 in Belagavi are having to hold their bladders or run to relieve themselves in a dangerous gutter located about 200 metres away from it, beside a railway track at New Gandhi Nagar in Belagavi. It does not have facilities like toilets, drinking water and even faces dearth of classrooms since a portion of its building collapsed two years ago during rainy season.

If anyone wants to gauge the government’s sanitation programme success rate, a visit to Government Urdu School No 5 will give them a good understanding. According to the staff members of the school, when the portion of the school collapsed, only a portion of the toilet was damaged. Students, especially girls, continued to utilise them. It was demolished 15 days ago, they added. The staff said that elder girl students, when they go home for lunch during break time, they utilise their toilets at home and return. They said that most of the students reside close to the school.

But the students of the school had a different story to tell. They have been urinating in an open gutter near a railway track since the building collapsed. Few temporary mobile toilets were brought to the school premises but they were not fitted and so remain unused, they alleged. One of the school staff members, on condition of anonymity, said, “Our misery cannot be explained in words. Students are forced to relieve themselves in the open. But the situation of older school girls especially during menstruation and even lady teachers is worse.”

This school has a total of 595 students and among them, 399 are girls. After the building collapse incident, it has been facing dearth of classrooms. The madrassa just beside the school provided its community hall premises, which is being utilised as classrooms. The huge open and deep gutter, which is utilised as toilets by students, may prove life threatening to them, if they accidentally fall into it. The school does not have a compound wall, due to which several students jump over the gutter and cross the railway track to reach their homes, which is again dangerous. These issues have been persisting for a long time but they are not being looked into by authorities concerned despite being brought to light several times, alleged parents of a few students. They said that they themselves had met a few authorities and even local public representative.