(a) Why did it take so long? Tata Consultancy Services has been a huge success story for some-time now and Jairam Ramesh has been talking about toilets before temples since a long time back.
The correct response to the above question is international humiliation after the rape and murder/honor killing of two young girls. In one sense this is not a bad thing, India (and Indians) are sensitive to world opinion (aka colonial mentality). That said, we (personally speaking) are still ashamed to look ourselves in the mirror.
(b) We do not wish to sound ungrateful, but it will not be enough for TCS to provide funding for toilets, what is imperative is paying for long-term maintenance contracts. India is known for building great stuff, but when it comes to maintenance there is a serious deficit.
(c) The 100 crore, 10,000 schools quantum must be scaled up rapidly to a million school-toilets initiative. Attach a primary health-care center. Work with NGOs to ensure that teachers are teaching and the children are meeting the minimum reading, riting and rithmetic standards. A mid-day meal must be guaranteed. In our opinion these steps are necessary (but not sufficient) for a slow climbing out from the bottom of the barrel.
(d) There is no reason why the states (especially the prosperous ones) are unable to come up with independent initiatives. Every little will help. The time for excuses is over.
(e) We recommend chanting (and acting on) of this mantra a thousand times daily, it will set your conscience free : donations for toilets before temples!!!
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Country’s
largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on
Monday said it has pledged Rs 100 crore toward financing hygienic
sanitation facilities for girl students across 10,000 schools. ………………………
TCS will earmark a budget of Rs 100 crore to be spent on this
initiative, which will help children, especially girl students, to
participate in school education for a longer period of time and play a
larger economic role in their communities, TCS said in a statement.
“We
firmly believe that achieving the mission of providing hygienic
sanitation for girl students will have a tangible impact on the level of
education achievement and development of India’s next generation,” TCS
CEO and managing director N Chandrasekaran said.
Emphasizing
on the ‘dignity of women’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked
parliamentarians and corporate sector to help build separate toilets for
girls in schools across the country by next year.
“I
want to start one work from today. There should be a toilet in all the
schools of our country. A separate toilet for girls…it is only then
our girls will not have to quit schools,” he had said during his
Independence Day address to the nation.
He added that the
corporate sector should give priority to building toilets in schools as
part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives.
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regards