Aastha Thakur
Published on: 25 September 2022 at 21:18 IST
On Friday, the Karnataka High Court sent notice to the state government over a PIL calling for actions to reduce the weight of school backpacks carried by elementary school kids.
A petition submitted by Attorney Ramesh Naik was given notice by a division bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty.
Concern for children’s overall physical and mental development led to the filing of the plea.
“If one tries to visualise the schooling process in the present time, one sees an image of the child with a bag on the shoulder. The very posture and expression on the face of the child give an impression that the bag is very heavy for the child.”
There are allegedly several laws, rules, government announcements, and circulars that control the American educational system, but the majority of them do not address the weight of school bags. The Children’s School Bag (Limitation on Weight) Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2006, but was shelved later.
The argument makes reference to the Center’s “Policy on School Bag-2020,” which places a limit on the weight of school bags that kids may carry. Naik, meanwhile, asserts that he has seen first-graders in Tumkur, Bangalore, and several other locations “plight” of toting large school bags on their backs.
Additionally, it is asserted that several studies by health professionals show that hefty school backpacks pose a big risk to the health and wellbeing of kids; they have substantial/unfavorable physical impacts on developing youngsters and may harm their knees and spinal column.
As a result, the petitioner claims that any inaction on the part of the State government to reduce schoolbags infringes children’ basic rights under Article 21 of the Constitution.