50 million Indian children still lack sanitation services in schools: WHO-UNICEF report

NEW DELHI: Nearly a fifth of the children with no access to sanitation services in schools are in India, the highest for any country in the world, according to the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report.

India has 50 million of the world's 244 million children who did not have sanitation services in schools in 2025, the report "Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools 2015-2025" noted.

The report also added that India also recorded a 14 per cent reduction in the number of schools with no sanitation service during the period assessed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s joint monitoring programme produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is responsible for global monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to WASH.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes global goals for water and sanitation and for education. Goal 4 aims to ensure "inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning" and includes targets to build and upgrade education facilities that are child-, disability- and gender-sensitive and provide safe and effective learning environments for all.

This includes providing all schools with access to electricity, computers, the internet, adapted infrastructure and materials for students with disabilities, and basic WASH services.

Goal 6 aims to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" and includes targets for universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all.

"In 2025, despite progress, 244 million children still had no sanitation service at their school," the report said.

India accounted for 50 million of them, Nigeria 34 million, Ethiopia 26 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 11 million and Indonesia 8 million, the report said.

For the purposes of SDG monitoring, a basic drinking water service means schools have access to a functioning improved water source. A basic sanitation service means schools have improved sanitation facilities that are single-sex and usable, and a basic hygiene service means schools have handwashing facilities with soap and water available at the time of the survey.

Hygiene remains another area of concern. Around 20 million Indian children had no hygiene service at schools. However, the JMP noted that insufficient recent data meant it could not generate hygiene coverage estimates for India and the Central and Southern Asia region beyond 2024.

"India performed comparatively better on school drinking-water access. In 2025, around 12 million Indian children lacked drinking-water services at school, accounting for roughly one in every 20 children globally without such services.

"India is among 28 of 62 countries considered on track to achieve universal basic drinking-water coverage in schools by 2030. Its basic drinking-water coverage increased by more than 4 per cent annually during the period assessed," it said.

The monitoring report noted that with just five years remaining until the end of the SDG period, the world is not on track to achieve universal access to basic WASH services in schools by 2030.

"Achieving universal coverage will require a fourfold increase in the current rate of progress on basic drinking water, a fivefold increase in progress on basic sanitation, and a fourfold increase in progress on basic hygiene.

"Based on current trajectories, around 84 per cent of schools will have basic water services, 81 per cent will have basic sanitation services and only 79 per cent will have basic hygiene services in 2030.

"At the end of the SDG period, 10 per cent of schools will still have no water service, 7 per cent will have no sanitation service and 12 per cent will have no hygiene service," it said.