NEW DELHI: Toilet facilities in MCD-run government schools mostly keep away users, what with the bad maintenance and overpowering stench. That is, in case the school in question has a toilet. Now the MCD is trying to change all that. The corporation is trying to ensure that at least all the girls’ school run by it have proper toilet facilities.

The civic agency has been promised help by the Union minister of state for urban employment and poverty alleviation Kumari Sailaja in the project. "The girl child will be the focus of the project as such facilities often prove to be crucial for their security as well," said an MCD education department official.

Finance is usually an issue and often, damaged or malfunctioning toilets never get fixed, forcing children to often step out of the school boundary. The MCD runs 1,853 primary schools all over the city that cater to a whopping 9.5 lakh students. Classes are often run in shifts and hardly any time or resources are available for maintenance.

"To begin with, we have sent the action plan to the ministry listing the 250 girls’ schools that need toilets on a priority basis. The ministry will build the toilets for us. The process to identify other places that need the facility is on," said MCD commissioner Rakesh Mehta.

And the facilities in question will at least 15% cheaper than the regular brick and concrete versions that are constructed in schools. The low cost model developed by the Building Material and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) uses bricks made from flyash and glass fibre reinforced doors that recycle glass shards disposed as construction waste.

MCD sources, however, say that the corporation and the ministry may go on to share resources if the question of adopting the model for the rest of the city arises. "This is being treated as a prototype, if successful, it may be used for public toilet complexes as well," the official said.