No toilet in 170 govt schools, no drinking water in 61 schools in Karnataka

While some government schools in Karnataka suffer from lack of basic infrastructure, a total of 170 schools do not have toilets. Also, School Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa, in response to Member of Legislative Council (MLC) N. Ravikumar’s question regarding basic infrastructure in government schools in the state, stated that 61 government schools do not have drinking water facilities.

Data on government schools and toilets in Karnataka

According to the minister, there are 46,460 government schools in Karnataka and a total of 40,74,525 students have enrolled for the year 2025-26. Of these, 46,290 schools have toilets.

There is no separate toilet for girls

According to the Minister’s statement, there are no separate toilets for girls in a total of 701 public schools and no separate toilets for boys in 2,039 public schools, making it mandatory for all students to use common toilets.

Government schools in Bengaluru are not immune to this problem either.

“Ours is a higher primary school, it has a total of 307 students from grades 1 to 8. 152 of them are girls. However, there are no separate toilets for so many girls. There are only 5 toilets in the school and all students have to use them. Although a request was made to the authorities to build additional toilets, it has not been implemented yet. Recently, a request was made to a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to build a separate toilet. The principal of a government school in Laggere in Bengaluru said, “Girls “There are toilets for boys and girls, but the project has not been implemented yet,” he said.

Schools are not CWSN friendly

Thousands of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) are also studying in government schools in Karnataka, but the government has failed to build CwSN-friendly toilets. A total of 39,478 government schools in the state do not have separate toilets for CwSN students.

“The government has a wrong perception about Persons with Disabilities (PwD). There are a total of 21 types of disabilities and basic facilities, including toilets, should be developed in every school keeping CwSN students in mind. Also, our teachers are not trained on how to teach CwSN children. That is why children lag behind in learning. The government should formulate any school project keeping CwSN students in mind,” said child rights activist Nagasimha Rao.

Giving information about the development of basic facilities in schools, the Minister said that a total of 9 thousand 878 rooms were repaired and 7 thousand 650 toilets were built in the last three years.

A grant of ₹360 crore for construction of classrooms, ₹100 crore for repairs and ₹90 crore for construction of toilets has been allocated in 2025-26 and the action plan approval process is on, he said.