The letter asks the court to take up the issue from the judicial side with the CBSE.

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has received a letter from a Kochi man, pleading with him to take up the cause of children studying in CBSE schools, who have to carry heavy bags stuffed with books every day.

The Supreme Court has acknowledged the receipt of the letter, dated June 6, from Mukesh Jain, requesting the Chief Justice of India to convert the letter into a public interest litigation petition to protect the fundamental rights of life and dignity of scores of children crushed under the weight of their school bags. There are over 19,000 schools in India affiliated to the CBSE.

Just what is required

Mr. Jain, in his two-page letter, has a simple solution: It does not require a change in the syllabus; let children carry only “what is required.”

He says the average body weight of a Class IV student is 28 kg. But the child carries a school bag that weighs almost 20% of his or her weight. That is two times a day, up and down the stairs of the school and while boarding a bus, and for at least 10 years of school life.

The letter asks the court to take up the issue from the judicial side with the CBSE.

Mr. Jain asks why textbooks cannot be printed in two or three parts. Notebooks too should be reduced to 100 pages, he noted.