The High Court Division on Wednesday asked the government to ensure that no primary school student henceforth carried schoolbags in excess of 10 per cent of his or her own weight.
The court also asked the government to enact a law within six months to enforce the directive.
As an interim measure, the director general of primary education was asked to issue a circular within 30 days asking primary schools across the country to ensure that school bags did not exceed 10 per cent of student’s own weight.
The directorate general of primary education was also asked to spell out, in the circular, punishments for the noncompliant school authorities.
The court also directed the primary education directorate general to open a monitoring cell for the enforcement of the directive.
The primary and mass education ministry secretary and the director general of primary education would be held equally responsible for noncompliance, said the court.
A bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das issued the directives in a landmark verdict it delivered after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition.
In the observations, the court said that people find it quite cruel to force children to go to privately run English and Bangla medium primary schools overloaded with books and stationary.
The court said that forcing school children to carry heavy schoolbags was cruelty to them as it could permanently damage their spines so early in life.
The court said such human rights violations of children could in no way be ignored.
The court said that the medical science did not permit a school going child to carry bag pack in excess of 10 per cent of his or her own weight.
It said that child specialists told media that they received increasing complaints that school going children carrying heavy back packs were suffering pains on their backs and shoulders besides other health problems.
The court said that despite media reports on children’s sufferings, no visible steps were taken by the authorities to reduce the burden on children attending primary schools.
The PIL writ petition was filed by Supreme Court lawyers SM Masud Hossain Dolon, Ziaur Rahman and Anarul Karim in August 2015.
The petitioners submitted that children’s backpacks were getting heavier with the passage of time as privately run primary schools were forcing their students to buy too many books and ancillaries simply out of profit motives.
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Source: New Age
