Karnataka High Court issues notice to government on reducing weight of school bags

Bengaluru: In response to a public interest litigation, a high court division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe issued a notice order to the government and the Recognized Unaided Private Schools Association (RUPSA).

An advocate from Tumakuru named L Ramesh Naik filed a PIL asking the court to order the government to take the necessary steps to reduce the weight of the school bags carried by primary school children throughout the state.

Regarding the weight of primary school students' school bags, a different approach has been developed to execute the Center's Policy on School Bag-2020.

The petitioner cited the Kannada proverb "Indina Makkale Naalina Prajegalu" (Today's children are tomorrow's citizens), asserting that if one tries to imagine the educational process in the contemporary setting, an image of a child with a bag on the shoulder and the posture and facial expression give the impression that the bag is very heavy for him/her comes to mind.

"According to numerous studies by health professionals, students' health and wellbeing are severely impacted by carrying big school backpacks. Growing youngsters experience extreme physical effects from the weight of the school backpack, which might harm their knees and vertebral column. Therefore, any inaction on the part of the state government to lighten school backpacks violates the basic right of kids/students as mentioned in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution," said the petitioner.

The petitioner claims that Article 15(3) of Part III of the Constitution's Fundamental Rights gives the state the authority to create special provisions for women and children.

"Article 21 deals with the life and personal liberty of a person. Article 39(f), under part IV Directive Principles of the State, imposes moral obligation on the state to make provision for healthy development of the children," while claiming that the state government has been negligent in making a special provision regarding children's healthy development, the petitioner made the following statement.