A concerned parent has written a letter to education minister Altaf Bukhari and other officials of education department about how carrying school bags have taken a toll on the mental and physical health of children.
Dr Ijtaba Shafi took to social networking site facebook to write the letter.
Kashmir Life reproduces the whole letter here:
Respected
Altaf Bukhari Sb, Asgar Samoon Sb, Var GN Sb
Subject: Appealing with a HEAVY HEART to intervene about HEAVY BAGS
Sir,
I hope my post will find you in good spirits.Before discussing about this grave matter i want to shed light on the picture which i have shared with this post. My daughter Zyna Ijtaba in order to overcome the extreme burden on her shoulder extends the sling size of the bag so as to evenly distribute the burden of her bag. She says “Papa aisay bag rakhnai sai comfortable feel hota hai aur thakti nahi hoon. Ye bag kab halka hoga,Papa”
A lot has been said and issue highlighted by so many responsible citizens of the society along with one PIL submitted in Hon’ble Court but still nothing positive is coming out till date.
A recent survey conducted by ASSOCHAM under its Healthcare Committee has found that 68 per cent of school children under the age of 13 years across India may suffer from mild back pain, which can develop into chronic pain and later into hunchback while as the SPM Department, GMC Srinagar in their extensive survey has highlighted the same kind of concern.
Although various stakeholders have been raising its voices always but very little or negligible has been done in this regard. I have been always worried about the burden being carried by the little shoulders of our kids but I feel that some minimal interventions by the concerned authorities can weed out this grave problem from our society.
I feel that the authorities should consider following humble suggestions for resolving this grave issue
- Make a compiled text book (say three in one or four in one) wherein couple of chapters from all subjects be included in one and such books be in that much numbers so that all the chapters of every book are included. By this the number of text books to be taken to school on a single day will be reduced
- Same analogy for copies wherein three in one (Four Line, Two-line, Check) should be compulsory always so that one or two copies will replace the individual copy system.
- Pigeon hole wardrobes for every class wherein all school oriented work books and copies can be kept by the students
- There can be an introduction of Work sheet system.
- A costly stuff but there can be two set of books one for school and one for home wherein through homework it will be depicted in crystal care directions by the teachers as what the student has done and what has to be done under homework.
I hope your good self reads my humble suggestions and can add or subtract the same so that the aim of this post is achieved. I hope our kids might get rid of this wrath as early as possible.
I humbly request all those who i have mentioned here to walk a step more on this issue as their efforts will be result oriented and will put an end to this deep agony of parents as too much of has been debated on this issue since long but nothing positive is coming out. You people have been doing commendable efforts in past but a bit more needed in this case to achieve the goal.
