During my research into education policy here at the Centre, whenever people spoke of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) trying to cut the weight from children’s school bags, I always assumed it was a figure of speech. Little did I realize that they meant it more literally
The Report has taken note in the beginning itself that “a survey conducted in Delhi revealed that the weight of school bag, on an average, in primary classes in public schools is more than 4 kg, while it is around 1 kg in MCD schools”. This finding of the Yash Pal Committee is in tune with the information with the educational managers that firstly, the load of the school bag is not a forbidding one in schools in villages and in small towns and secondly, even in big towns, the problem is in its most aggravated form in regard to students of public schools and children of pre-school classes.
[from the Yash Pal Committee report, 1993]
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