Heavy School bags – The hidden burden

The school-going kids all across Kashmir have been found to struggle with their school bags. Heavy and bulging, the school bags are hard to carry for the kids. The school management bodies all across Kashmir have on most of the occasions been found guilty of forcing the kids to carry heavy school bags. It is amazing that in the age of today when the thrust is on practical, experiment-based knowledge why the students in Kashmir are forced to carry heavy school bags. The parents on a lot of occasions have raised this issue on various media platforms but nothing changed. On the virtual social media channels, this issue was highlighted by a lot of netizens but to no apparent result. There was once also a writ petition filed by a social activist against the usage of heavier school bags but the school managements across Kashmir seem to be dodging such advisories and continue to let students carry heavier school bags. The body of a seven or eight-year-old boy or girl is not adapted enough to carry a bag as heavy as 6 to 7 kilograms for several hundred meters in some cases kilometers (every school does not have a home-to-school-to-home bus service). There have been instances when carrying of such heavy bags has led to severe pain in back, shoulder problems, or severe neck pain. The doctors say that prolonged usage of heavier bags may also lead to severe problems in some cases. The school management across Kashmir needs to come together and devise ways in which this issue can be solved. More practical and experimental-based knowledge needs to be given to students at a young age. Besides, the use of multi-media in imparting education has to be increased. Let us together make education of youth fun. Let us do away with heavier school bags.