The Sanitary Health Crisis in Indian Women’s Higher Education Institutes

Delhi University's Kalindi College is a small off-campus institute hidden away in the posh gated communities of East Patel Nagar. It went viral on Instagram early last year for a less-than-conventional reason: unsanitary toilets.

On March 2nd 2024, a DU-centric account posted a video submission panning over filthy commodes in one of the college's washrooms, sent in by a student, stating that the 'deplorable condition' of Kalindi's loos had caused her sister to suffer multiple urinary tract infections.

The student also alleged that her request for amplification followed repeated complaints to the college principal, Prof. Meena Charanda, whose lack of response pushed her to take to social media. 

"The dirty washrooms at Kalindi College and the principal's lack of action on the matter are major concerns," said @du_india, censoring the student's identity in the reel shared with their 182k followers.

The following day, another DU-based account with over a lakh followers reposted the video with a trending audio, causing the issue to blow up on Instagram a second time, gaining traction among female university goers both in & out of Kalindi who identified with the student in the video. 

Following the social media uproar, Kalindi's administration finally took action on what had long been the single biggest concern of its regular students: regular cleaning of toilets across the campus was ensured, & previously locked up women's rooms were opened.

"They're all just like TRI Block," said Manvi, an elated senior, referring to the lone set of toilets on campus that was usable and, therefore, shared between its over 4000 regular attendees. "They clean them regularly now."

As of January 2025, Kalindi boasts of a mug, a (usually functional) tap, & a regularly cleaned Indian-style commode on every floor.

Even so, the college is far from meeting the criteria of 'Basic Functionality' outlined in the UGC guidelines for a 'safe & secure environment for women' in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). 

Kalindi's viral toilets bring to notice a pattern in many higher education institutes for women. Many central institutes have a long history of ignoring & dismissing student complaints—even when they are made through formal channels. Poor sanitation remains the norm across public HEIs in India, even those focusing on women’s education. 

Besides terrible sanitation facilities, these HEIs also have inadequate medical facilities and charge money for necessities such as menstrual pads, according to the students studying there.

Unlike the momentary virality of the reels, the staunchly patriarchal culture of Indian institutes is stuck in stasis. It is one where it is normal to cut corners in women's health & sanitation; one where the neglect of their well-being & comfort, is by design.

How Kalindi College hid a severe hygiene crisis

Of the 67 years that Kalindi College has been around, student surveys have been conducted for a mere six. As per UGC guidelines, this in itself is a violation of protected student entitlement, repeatedly failing to provide which can result in legal and punitive action.

 In 5 years' worth of annual reports between 2016 and 2022 found on Kalindi's website (2021-2022 was a hybrid session), unclean toilets & poor sanitation have been a—and perhaps the most—consistent issue in the college's student feedback surveys during offline academic sessions.

In the first three, till 2018-19, transcripts of the student's 'suggestions' described explicitly the deplorable sanitation facilities at the institute, lacking necessities such as soap or running water. Following 2019, these transcripts were excluded from the reports, & past 2021-22, the reports were stopped entirely.

A detailed analysis of these reports for Nivarana revealed that even in the few years during which the Delhi University affiliated institute complied with the UGC regulations for student feedback, the reports got progressively opaque, with student remarks being summarised more & more until being omitted entirely from the findings.

Reviewing the transcripts from 2016-17, which were left unedited & unanalysed, showed that a shocking 92% of remarks from the B. A. Hindi Honours department had complaints with the institute's hygiene, with nearly every respondent pointing out a near absence of clean washrooms, clean food, clean drinking water, & general cleanliness in the campus. 

Yet, the report, which didn't even include WASH (an acronym for Water, Sanitation & Hygiene, considered a keystone of health analysis for institutions) as criteria of assessment, showed that only 12% of respondents were 'unsatisfied' with basic amenities. The pattern then repeated itself with every department, every year.

It is not uncommon for institutions to manipulate data to support the conclusions they prefer or to undermine the findings they'd rather not show. Kalindi's student feedback surveys employed covert data manipulation tactics such as unbalanced Likert scales, biased sampling (asking non-sports students to rate sports facilities or assess toilet satisfaction during an online session), and misrepresentation to downplay the severity of its hygiene crisis year after year, till even the only usable toilets in the 4,000 person institute were left uncleaned for days on end, pushing students to the point of desperation.

Back in 2016, India saw a heatwave that killed over a thousand people & pushed 330 million into endangerment. Delhi and its neighboring states took the brunt of the heat, with Jaipur reaching the national at 51 degrees. As the National Disaster Management Authority prepared an action plan for this crisis, students of Kalindi College filled their feedback forms with suggestions such as 'availability of cold water,' 'availability of water purifier,' and 'there is no water to drink.'

"Pay attention to our problems," says one of the forms from 2016-17, alongside many others pleading with the administration to provide them with basic sanitation. "Please."

From Kalindi College's Students Feedback Survey 2018-19

The bar chart labels in the report are oddly ordered, placing "very good" (the second-best rating) after "unsatisfactory" (the worst rating), which makes it harder to interpret the data accurately.

Similarly, the Likert scale used for feedback is flawed. Instead of having a clear neutral middle point and balanced extremes, it uses categories like "excellent, very good, good, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory," which are uneven and misleading. A proper scale should have symmetrical extremes (e.g., excellent to terrible) with a neutral option in the middle. 

These design choices can misrepresent data, making poor outcomes look better than they are. This subtle manipulation helps institutions hide low standards and avoid accountability, which is an important issue.

Poor sanitation fuels low attendance and dropouts

It’s no secret that toilets & private sanitation facilities, & a lack thereof, disproportionately affect women & girls. In India, 23% of school-going girls permanently drop out of education because of a lack of toilets alone, & it is no surprise that the numbers skyrocket between the ages of 14-18, just after most have hit puberty. 

UNICEF’s study through 2003–23 shows the embarrassing progress made over the last twenty years globally by schools over basic institutional facilities that would allow a menstruating child to attend school, but there is little to no literature to be found over what exactly it means for a girl to go through her period in a public space without a toilet.

Having graduated from Kalindi, I spent most of my three years in and out of NCC camps before moving to Jamia Millia Islamia for my master's. I am no stranger to the washroom politics of the state-run institute. There was the need to travel in packs, so a friend could hold a door that didn’t lock while you undressed. There were the delays to class because you had to walk to the Science Block, 2nd floor, third cubicle – the only one with running water that day. Then, there were the dreaded morning ditch-texts from friends once a month. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was not alone.

In a 13-person survey (data available on request by email), 100% of respondents confirmed that the lack of usable washroom facilities directly impacts their attendance. This is especially true during their periods, though not exclusively so.

In Jamia Millia Islamia, for instance, an institute praised as a haven for Muslim students, the washrooms lack functional commodes. They also lack basic ablution facilities. “Sometimes, I find myself skipping college because of the absence of a proper wazu,” says Sara. Wazu is the ceremonial act of washing oneself before prayer in Islam.“The non-functioning washrooms make it difficult to perform my prayers,” adds Sara, who is pursuing her second master's in Jamia and knows the campus well.

According to her, the only decent female washrooms on the massive campus are located at gates 7 and 8, the main centers of the university. This is despite Jamia’s reputation for accommodating students' religious needs, with adjustments built into the weekly schedule. However, like their comfort, the religious requirements of female students are treated as disposable.

For menstruating girls, sanitation facilities were found to “completely dictate” attendance. “I wouldn’t want to humiliate myself by going to college during my period, which might or might not have water or would require scrambling around for soap,” said Akanksha, a postgraduate student at JMI. “It’s better to stay at home at the time.”

In Kalindi, like other non-residential colleges, the situation was even worse. A clean toilet often meant the difference between attending or missing a whole day of classes. The lack of amenities led to conditions so unsanitary that many students caught urinary tract infections (UTIs). Others constantly feared catching UTIs if they felt compelled to use the toilets.

Absenteeism during periods became so normalized that many of Kalindi’s former students aren’t even aware that their infirmary charged for sanitary pads. Nikita, a 2024 graduate diagnosed with PCOD, laughed when asked what she thought of the college charging for individual napkins. She joked about her condition, saying, “I guess I was lucky.”

Reflection of a broader culture of apathy

Despite only ever going viral for its toilets, Kalindi’s infamy neither begins nor ends with them. Its academics & administration too are a long & undulating list of controversy, whether it be over attendance fibbing, faculty replacement, or cases of harassment or abuse by officials.

It must then be observed that the seeming redundancy of the college’s sanitation facility is not noteworthy because it is unusual, but precisely because it isn’t. This follows a disturbing pattern of mismanagement at an institute that, despite its now obsolete A+ NAAC accreditation, suffers from a lack of seriousness.

Kalindi’s case is an extreme example of a larger culture of institutional incompetence. Aspects of this incompetence can be observed everywhere. For the majority of girls there, the very idea of a government institute caring about their health and hygiene was always out of the question.

Meenakshi, an ambitious and sharp civil service aspirant, was forced by her parents to attend Kalindi despite qualifying for better-ranked colleges because they were co-ed. She said the problem doesn’t end with graduation but continues to haunt women in the public sector till the bitter end.

As Akanksha from JMI put it, “It is common for women to go around looking for a clean washroom with availability of water and soap. It is a norm in most women's groups to decide which washroom is the cleanest to use, no matter how far it may be from our classes. Apart from the unavailability of water, one has to choose between soap or cleanliness to use a washroom.”

Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education & Sports Sciences is a noteworthy exception. It is a single-department college located in South Delhi’s Vikaspuri. The college is one of the 12 Delhi University colleges that are 100% funded by the Delhi Government instead of the centre.

Its labs, faculty, and academia have long suffered from a lack of regular financing, though there have been recent improvements. However, here, toilets are clean, and pads are free. This was shared by Ritu, a second-year student of the college. This illustrates that the issue is not about budget but rather about apathy and intent.

A visceral reminder of this apathy is an image from a washroom in one of IIT Kanpur's girls' hostels that I carry with me in memory, if not always in form. A lack of dustbins in the wing led the girls to use a bucket to dispose of sanitary napkins. These piled up over weeks and weeks, likely because no one wanted to touch it. It became a writhing culture of the world’s worst kind of filth.

One morning, I walked in and saw that someone had hung the bucket up by a string tied to the handle. It was placed on the grill of the bathroom window, front and center, for everyone to see.

In a washroom in a girls' hostel at IIT Kanpur, October 2023

Edited by Christianez Ratna Kiruba.

Image by Christianez Ratna Kiruba.