Tribal Hostels Reveal The Truth Of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Ramshackle hostels, sub-human conditions, meagre food supply, unusable toilets are some of the few words that describe the state of Adivasi hostels in Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. A survey conducted between December 2017 and July 2018 by the Centre for Adivasi Research and Development (CARD) has revealed the desperate conditions of Adivasi hostels in the state of Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Funded both by the centre and the state, the living conditions in these hostels are indescribable. The survey has ruptured the tall claims of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” as the Adivasi students in these hostels have been forced to defecate in the open due to a lack of facilities.

“Claims of Swachha Bharat are put to shame when we find that 15 per cent of all children surveyed in Rajasthan and 29 per cent of all children surveyed (far higher among boys) in Jharkhand defecate in the open. The problem of unusable toilets becomes particularly acute at night due to the lack of electricity, and also in the rainy season. The toilets are filthy and choked, with no power supply, forcing teachers and students to defecate in the open,” the survey read.

The survey by CARD, carried across 1,700 students in 32 hostels of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, indicated that most of the hostel buildings were highly dilapidated, unhealthy, and unsafe. It was found that the bathrooms were in bad shape and without doors, so much so that the percentage of “girls bathing in the open within hostel compounds was 23 per cent in Jharkhand and 17 per cent in Rajasthan.” What’s most striking is that the bathrooms did not have water and not many hand pumps were functional, so children were forced to go to the stream for bathing.

"There is a shortage of water throughout the year either because there is no tank or no motor or neither. Mosquito nets are not given," says the report.

Run down hostels, bedding not washed for months, no supply or little supply of water- the condition of the Adivasi students described in the survey is alarming. Only one girls’ school in Mandar, Ranchi, funded under the Kasturba Gandhi Girls’ School Scheme of the central government had better hostel facilities than others, however, that too cannot be compared to the best. Even in this hostel, girls faced problems like inadequate water supply, and low-quality food. The boys’ hostel in Mandar, Ranchi was the worst as per the survey. There was no warden, caretaker, guard, or cook.

Besides these issues, overcrowding has also been an evident problem in these hostels, with an average of 1.5 to 2 children per bed. “In all the three States, there was overcrowding in rooms, with an average of 1.5 to 2 children per bed and at least twice the sanctioned capacity in each room. This overcrowding in the rooms is more severe in the run down hostels,” the report reads. The survey was released at the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch convention recently in Delhi.