The Voice of Tenkasi Foundation, in association with Sprint 6, has started renovating toilets in government schools in the district with an aim to bring at least 1,000 toilets in these schools for regular use.

The first renovated toilet of this series in the panchayat union primary school at Paimpozhil, popularly known as Panpozhi, was opened on Thursday.

According to Ananthan Ayyasamy, founder of Voice of Tenkasi Foundation, more than 60% of the girl students pick-up infections due to unclean toilets and suffer from its consequences, according to a survey done by UNICEF in 2020. More than 40% of the children drink less than 1 litre of water a day as they are afraid of using these unhygienic toilets, according to the report of World Health Organisation released in 2018.

More than 80% of government schools lack basic facilities in the toilets, as per the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, 2019.

“Hence, we’ve initiated the renovation of 1,000 toilets that cannot be used due to poor maintenance in government schools in Tenkasi district. Besides ensuring the students’ hygiene and health, the clean toilets will also check the number of dropout of girl children,” said Mr. Ananthan Ayyasamy, appealing to philanthropists, private companies, non-governmental organisations to join hands in this noble cause.