Ironical, isn’t it? Especially since the Right to Education Act which guarantees the provision of free and compulsory education to children aged six to fourteen, demands that a ‘playground’ be included in the basic norms that all schools in India must comply with.

This harsh reality came to light after Sumanna’s school participated in the Green Schools Programme (GSP) that gives students and teachers an opportunity to conduct an environmental audit of their school. The audit is done following guidelines given in the Green Schools Programme Manual, published by the Centre for Science and Environment. The school scored 7.5 out of 10 for building a field area and its green area is far less but Sumanna lets us know that necessary steps are being taken. Rajni Negi, a teacher from the same school, also tells us that much deliberation has been done on creating green spaces and waste water management.

Most schools haven’t met the criteria set for building a field
area in the GSP Manual. Most of the schools that have lost
points on play field area requirement are semi urban and
urban schools, especially private ones. Government schools
have fared no better.

Seventy six percent of the schools that submitted their audits for this
year’s Green Schools Programme Awards don't have a RWH system. Despite the fact that the government’s national flagship programme to provide quality elementary schools for all, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, puts a special emphasis on this.

A major exception is the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 46, Chandigarh with two RWH structures (one manual and one mechanical). The school got lucky when the city’s Rotary Club volunteered to build the mechanical structure which harvests 30 per cent of its capacity.

The 15-feet manual structure was built by the school’s eco club students and recharges ground water. Om Prakash, a teacher at the school, proudly tells us how the neighbourhood community has noticed a change in the water table.

Mousumi Roy of Kerala Public School (KPS) Mango, Jamshedpur,
Jharkhand, is in a quandary though. The two buildings of her school have rooftop structures but with very little rainfall they haven't been of as much use as they are expected to be. And does the minuscule amount of rain that is harvested satisfy any of the ever rising demands of the school? The answer is no. The school has to extract ground water for its kitchens and toilets. The situation is same for Mesco Grades, Hyderabad. It has bore wells to provide for its water demand. No RWH structures were built due to lack of funds.

According to the audit results of this year’s Green School Programme,
only thirty one out of the 102 participating schools harvest more
than 90 per cent of their rainwater harvesting potential.

Recycling waste water: A distant dream?

Reuse and recycling are also issues that most schools are not addressing at the moment. Ninety six per cent of the participating 399 schools don’t reuse or recycle their waste water. Shocked? So were we. Samuel of Chennai’s PCKG School is frank when he says that the
school is not even thinking about it. Their drains directly transport waste water underground. Ayub Khamroddin of Hyderabad’s Mesco Grades says they don't have any facilities, due to lack of funds again. They have petitioned the school’s management in this regard. If it
is not cash crunch, then it is a lack of expertise that has troubled KPS in Jharkhand. According to Mousumi, things are not moving fast. “There was a basin that channelised drinking water to the
kitchen garden earlier. But it doesn't exist anymore,” she says. Even Om Prakash from Chandigarh admits that “though drinking water residues are directed towards our herbal garden, we haven't really invested in recycling waste water.”