School girls face acute crisis of gender- responsive sanitation
Staff Reporter :
The adolescent girls in the suburban educational institutions have been facing acute crisis of gender-responsive sanitation facilities.
Inadequate gender-responsive sanitation facilities have profound impacts on the academic achievements and mental well-being of the adolescent girls, according to a recent study report unveiled by the Department of Human-centered Design of the Userhub in Dhaka.
The study report titled as ‘Improving adolescent girls’ well-being through gender-sensitive sanitation in suburban Bangladeshi schools’ was released on Saturday by sending a media release.
Userhub’s Wahid bin Ahsan and Samira Ahsan jointly prepared the study report collecting information through interview of the suburban Bangladeshi school students, it said.
The study report claimed that these challenges are not isolated but intersect with broader societal issues including the overall education of females, sanitation, hygiene practices, and the essential need for gender-specific spaces conducive to quality education.
Addressing these challenges is not merely about enhancing education but resonates with larger global aspirations, including the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’.
By nurturing environments that are sensitive to the needs of these young girls, it can be influenced a cascade of positive outcomes across hygiene, education, and gender equity.
The report advocates for the rights and well-being of these young minds, it becomes imperative for all stakeholders – educational institutions, local authorities, and the larger community – to adopt a holistic approach.
This involves not only provisioning facilities but ensuring their aptness, privacy, maintenance, and security.
It also said that it’s now the high time to shift paradigms, applying and refining policies that cater to the nuanced needs of adolescent girls, thereby transforming hygiene management in educational settings across Bangladesh.
Every step we take in this direction is a stride towards an inclusive, educated, and empowered society.
From the 1980s onward, a marked surge in secondary school enrollments for girls in Bangladesh is evident. Specifically, enrollments rose from 39 percent in 1998 to 67 percent in 2017.
Yet, despite these promising statistics, challenges persist.
The 2017 data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics highlight an alarming dropout rate of 42 percent for girls at the secondary school level.
Furthermore, a mere 59 percent achieve completion at the secondary level, and only 10 percent of students progress to grade 10.
Gender-sensitive sanitation services stand out as essential for educational equity.
The lack of these services poses a significant hindrance to girls’ school access, experience, and completion.
Such services should encompass clean, safe, and gender-separated facilities, with requisite access to water and waste disposal, catering to the specific needs of all students, including adolescent girls.
