Jamshedpur, Feb. 21: East Singhbhum district administration has performed well in the implementation of Swasth Plus, a central government project aimed at improving sanitation and health standards in schools.

Swasth Plus, funded by Unicef, was undertaken as a pilot project in East Singhbhum, Ranchi and three other districts of Karnataka — Raichur, Tumkur and Gulbarga. East Singhbhum seems to have pleased the central ministry officials by implementing the project in majority of the schools.

The human resource development ministry recently convened a meeting in New Delhi in which the officials expressed satisfaction over the progress in the project.

The deputy commissioner, East Singhbhum, Nitin Madan Kulkarni, also attended the meeting. Now, the Centre wants to implement the project in every state of the country and to incorporate it into Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

Kulkarni, after his return, said: “We have implemented the project in 1,168 schools in our district against a total of 1,906, and the officials are happy about it. Now, they are contemplating of incorporating it into SSA, which would help in reaching out to more students,” said Kulkarni.

Apart from providing separate lavatories for girls and boys in schools, the project also deals with spreading awareness about hygiene among children like using a ladle for drinking water, and also spreading the concept of kitchen gardening. District administration officials said separate lavatories have helped in registering more attendance of girls in schools.