Govind Tekale
A school building with a toilet isn’t the same as a school with a working toilet. This gap between “having something” and “having something that actually works” is what the School Thik Karo campaign is trying to fix in Maharashtra and beyond.
The campaign started in August 2026 from a village called Santuk Pimpri in Hingoli district. Led by Abhijeet Dipke through Citizens for Justice and Peace, teams visit government schools and check what actually exists versus what’s written in official records. They look for clean drinking water, functioning toilets, classrooms that don’t leak, and working electricity. Parents and local residents do these inspections together, creating a community record.
Why does this matter? India has 1.47 million government schools. According to the latest national data from the Ministry of Education, here’s what the numbers claim:
93.6% of schools have electricity. That sounds good until you realize that leaves roughly 95,000 schools without power. 99.3% have drinking water facilities. But “facility” doesn’t mean the water is clean or the hand pump actually works. 97.3% have girls’ toilets. That leaves about 40,000 schools without proper girls’ facilities. 95.9% have handwashing stations. 63.5% have internet access, though that’s up from 53.9% the previous year.
These percentages hide a crucial reality. A school might have a toilet on its list but students can’t use it because the door is broken or there’s no water supply. A classroom might have an electricity connection but no bulbs or wiring. This is where School Thik Karo steps in—documenting the gap between “exists” and “works.”
The campaign follows India’s Right to Education Act rules, which require certain standards. Schools should have separate, clean toilets for boys and girls. They should provide clean drinking water. Classrooms need to be structurally safe. These aren’t new demands—they’re the law since 2009.
When these audits happen, they sometimes embarrass local officials into action. In response, state governments have started their own initiatives. Rajasthan announced a ₹12,500 crore school modernization program. Other states are reviewing infrastructure under pressure from both the campaign’s findings and the media coverage they attract.
Here’s the practical question: What can parents actually do? The Right to Education Act created School Management Committees—groups of parents and teachers who legally control funds for school repairs. Gram Panchayats, the village councils, also have budgets for school maintenance. Parents can ask their School Management Committee or Panchayat for specific improvements.
The School Thik Karo campaign doesn’t claim that all government schools are broken. It claims that several individual schools are missing basic facilities. National data shows most schools have some infrastructure. Individual audits show some schools don’t. Both can be true at the same time.
What’s important is what happens next. If a school’s toilet isn’t working, the School Management Committee should fix it. If electricity is missing, that’s a priority. These aren’t expensive luxuries—they’re basics that the government promised when the RTE Act became law.
The campaign’s strength is that it’s asking a simple question: Can students actually use what the school is supposed to have? That’s different from asking “Does the school have it on paper?”
