Since the early 1990s there has been an interest, especially by Unicef, to focus on children as a special group to promote sanitation and hygiene at home, in the community as well as in schools and anganwadis (pre-school and nutrition centres). The argument underpinning the focus on children is based on the links between WASH and child health, education and sustainable development on one side, and the perceived potential of children to mobilise the family and community to adopt hygienic and safe sanitation practices, on the other. This has led to schools, donors and governments enthusiastically promoting the concept of child participation in WASH to ensure a ‘joyful’ adoption of safe and hygienic practices. While this has led to the creation of a safer environment in some schools, it has also led to much of the responsibility for keeping the school clean being given to children. There are also clear indications that caste based discrimination has filtered down to the schools where often it is the children from the lower caste communities, who are given the responsibility of cleaning the school toilets. Concerns are also being raised about the reach of WASH initiatives to children of poorer habitations.