“Bilkul kum ho gaya hai (yes, the weight has reduced drastically),” says Naina, a Class 3 student at the Government Senior Secondary School Vatika of Jaipur as she talks about her school bag.
The weight of Dev’s textbooks has reduced from 0.95 kg to 0.30 kg. For Naina and Neeraj, it has decreased from 1.35 kg to 0.5 kg.
The project comes in the backdrop of the Ministry of Human Resource Development asking all states and Union Territories last year to fix the weight of school bags.
How lighter school bags help
When Rajasthan did a study, 73% of the students asked, said they were bothered by the weight of their school bags. About 42%, in fact, saw the weight saw it as a hindrance to schoolgoing. About 40% of the parents agreed. When integrated books — one book for muliple subjects — were introduced, teachers overwhelming approved of them.
Read more of this in a report by Hamza Khan published in The Indian Express... (Link given below)
Though this directive has been sent by Union HRD ministry to all states, we do not hear much as to what has really happened on the ground. Hope all states take this on priority. - Editor
