MUMBAI: Questioning the fuss over heavy
school bags
, the
Bombay high court
on Monday observed that today's curriculum required books to be carried. However, it added that children tend to carry all their books at once.
"Why are the bags heavy? Because kids don't keep their books according to their timetable and carry all the books," said a bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Nitin Jamdar. It heard a PIL filed in 2015 by an activist Swati Patil to lighten school bags.
Her advocate Nitesh Nevshe said there is no implementation of a government resolution and there is inaction against schools. The CJ reminisced about his days as a student in Shimla. "I used to walk 7 km with my bag everyday,'' he said. Nevshe said children are having back pain as a result of carrying heavy bags. "Why is it that our backs never suffered
spondylitis
?" he asked. Nevshe said children also suffer from
neck pain
.
Taking note that there are some 11 periods in a six-hour school time with 45 minutes lunch break, judges said they don't think children unnecessarily carry heavy bags. Holding the State's new Sulabh Bharati geography book for class VI, the CJ said.
Rosy Sequeira is special correspondent at The TImes of India, Mum...
Read MoreRosy Sequeira is special correspondent at The TImes of India, Mumbai\nsince July 2011. She has covered Bombay High Court for over nine years\nwhich includes her earlier stints with other newspapers. Her forte is\non-the-spot accurate reporting. She tries to bring a human face to the otherwise largely\ndrab court proceedings and constantly looks out for judicial observations \nthat strike a chord with the common man.\n
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