Male students at the PM Shree Government Higher Secondary School in Pinjara Hegdalu village, Hagaribommanahalli taluk of Vijayanagara district, are compelled to use the school’s compound wall as a toilet due to the complete absence of dedicated facilities for boys. The school, which was constructed in 2023, houses a total of 256 students, comprising 144 boys and 112 girls. Although the new building includes two toilets, both are reserved exclusively for the female students, leaving the hundreds of girls with only two facilities while the boys have none.
Consequently, the boys must leave the school premises during breaks to relieve themselves behind trees or use the open ground. A ‘D’ group employee at the school noted that the road in front of the institution is part of the Hosapete-Harihara State Highway, a known accident-prone zone, making it difficult to supervise students as they cross the road to find privacy. For defecation, students are forced to cross the highway entirely.
The school draws students from several surrounding villages, including Nandibandi, Marabbihal, Narayana Devarakere, Nakarala Tanda, Keshavarayanabandi, Hos Anandavanahalli, Kechchinabandi, and K. Obalapur. While the number of classrooms is adequate for the student population, basic infrastructure remains lacking. Yuvraj and Manoj, students in the 10th standard, stated that they have been urinating behind the wall for three years. They explained that although a toilet was initially built for the boys, it was handed over to the girls because of the higher number of female students.