Mumbai: IIT Graduates' Advocacy Organisation (IGAO), a group formed by former IITians, has filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court on discrepancies between the official data of Government of India and the ‘real' number of toilets in the schools of Akola district, Maharashtra.
The group, with former IITians as members, now has a seven-member steering committee across the world. Its president Dr Jayant Sathaye, a member of the Nobel Prize winning team on climate change in 2008, is based in Berkeley, US. Dr Shashi Enarth, its policy expert contributes from Hyderabad. The group's executive vice-president Sharad Wagle heads the India chapter from Mumbai.
Dr Yogi Agarwal, group's committee director, found desperate need to build toilets in the schools of his home town in Akola. After studying the data IGAO found a difference between actual and official numbers of toilets in the schools and took a decision to file the PIL.
Agrawal has been working on education and water in Akola since 2000. He built 230 toilets in his village after he saw old women defecating in open in darkness.
The litigation, filed through the Human Rights Law Network, accuses the government of not complying with several orders of the Supreme Court. Citing clauses in the Bureau of Indian Standards of Basic Requirements for Water Supply, Drainage and Sanitation, the group stresses the need for one urinal for every 20 students and one drinking fountain for every 50 students.
A member of the group told a leading daily, “Data from the Zila Parishad shows one or no toilets in schools. Despite this reality, (Centre's) District Information System for Education categorises this district to have 96 per cent of schools in compliance with RTE laws. The picture would be no different in other states.”
According to the studies and estimates of the group, there is a need of about 200 million toilets in the country. The sum required to achieve that target is at least Rs 3,000 billion.
Devendra Gautam, IGAO member and an IIT Kanpur alumnus based in Delhi, says that the group's next agenda is the need for high quality primary education.
In June 2012 at Houston, Texas, the 1969 batch of IIT, Bombay, debated India and Indian education. Later on, 30 alumni formed a group IGAO to engage with policy making in India.
