Students will soon need trolleys: HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday observed that soon children will have to start taking trolleys to school as their bags are not enough to carry the weight of books.
A bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice B P Colabawalla reacted after perusing a government committee report to suggest ways to reduce the weight of school bags. The 44 recommendations, which were first reported by TOI (see box), highlighted the health problems that children who lug heavy bags face. “At this rate, children will have to start carrying trolleys as the backpacks are turning out to be insufficient,” said Justice Kanade.
The court was hearing a PIL by Swati Patil for reducing the weight of bags. The judges said some of the suggestions “are quite reasonable” and asked how long would the government take to implement them. Government advocate Anjali Helekar said the report has been accepted and a decision will be taken soon.
The judges also said division of books, as suggested by the report, may not be possible this year as these have been already printed. They said a 35-minute period for eight subjects would mean carrying a lot of weight.
“Instead, on one day, keep three or four subjects so that the student does not have to carry books for each and every subject,” said Justice Kanade. The judges said implementing some of the suggestions may not be possible this year. “This year, if you can, change the timetable and consider lockers, wherever possible,” said Justice Kanade.