India has the highest number of children in the world without sanitation services at school. This is according to a new report by the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme.
The report is called “Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools 2015-2025.” It says 244 million children worldwide had no sanitation service at their school in 2025. India accounts for 50 million of them. That is nearly one in five of these children. Nigeria follows with 34 million, then Ethiopia with 26 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 11 million and Indonesia with 8 million.
There is some good news. India recorded a 14 per cent drop in the number of schools with no sanitation service over the period studied.
Hygiene is another worry. Around 20 million Indian children had no hygiene service at school. The report says it could not estimate hygiene coverage for India beyond 2024, because recent data was limited.
India did better on drinking water. About 12 million Indian children lacked drinking water at school in 2025. That is roughly one in 20 children globally without such services. India is among 28 of the 62 countries on track to reach universal basic drinking water coverage in schools by 2030. Its coverage grew by more than 4 per cent a year.
The report says the world is not on track to meet the 2030 goal. Reaching it would need a fourfold rise in the pace of progress on drinking water. It would need a fivefold rise on sanitation and a fourfold rise on hygiene.
At current rates, about 84 per cent of schools will have basic water services by 2030. About 81 per cent will have basic sanitation and only 79 per cent will have basic hygiene. By then, 10 per cent of schools will still have no water service. Seven per cent will have no sanitation and 12 per cent will have no hygiene service.
(Source: The Telegraph / PTI)
