Girl students are at the receiving end of this neglect, as some of the prestigious girls’ schools in South Kolkata are found to be flouting the basic requirements of sanitation system.

City Level Programme For Street Children, an NGO working to enhance the sanitation system in the schools, has surveyed 375 schools in six districts of the state.

“We have recently inspected the schools in Nadia, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah and Kolkata. None of the schools had the requisite facilities,” said Achintya Bhattacharya, an official of the NGO. Nearly 90 per cent of these schools do not keep any stock of sanitary napkins, a must for sanitation system in any girls or co-education institution. The NGO found that the percent of absenteeism is more among the girl students.

“The main reason why the girls do not turn up is lack of proper sanitation facilities. Most of the girl students prefer to drop schools when they are menstruating,” said a female member of the NGO, who had participated in the survey work.

Interestingly, one-third of the Central government’s Sarva Shiksha Aviyan’s funds is spent on the improvement of infrastructure of schools in the state.