A few days before the next hearing of the schoolbag case in the Bombay High Court, city based petitioner Swati Patil has pointed out several discrepancies in the data provided by the state education department to the court in October last year.
A few days before the next hearing of the schoolbag case in the Bombay High Court, city based petitioner Swati Patil has pointed out several discrepancies in the data provided by the state education department to the court in October last year.
After being repeatedly pulled up by the court, in October 2016, the state education department submitted a report of 36 districts mentioning the percentage of compliance per district as per the schoolbag weight policy. The report claimed that a total of 85 per cent schoolbags across state schools had complied to its guidelines, which were issued in July 2015, restricting the weight of schoolbags to 10 per cent of the child's body weight.
Patil, however, has raised several concerns about the claim. Over the last three months, she has collected several records proving that there are several discrepancies in the data. To begin with, Patil found that the total number of schools in several districts mentioned as per the state report did not match with the data obtained through RTIs filed. In Raigad, for instance, the state report claimed that there were a total of 3,842 schools which were surveyed for the check and a total of 95 per cent bags surveyed complied with the norms. However, a response to an RTI query filed by Patil revealed that there were 2,830 schools in Raigad that were checked and the compliance rate was 73 per cent.
"The state is trying to cover up by providing wrong data. When there is a difference of over a 1,000 schools in several districts, how does one trust their findings" asked Patil.
Another such case is of schools in Kolhapur. The state claimed that a total of 3,637 schools were surveyed, of which 95 per cent bags complied with the guidelines. However, an RTI obtained in July 2016 revealed that a total of 2,223 schools were surveyed, of which 94 per cent schools complied with the norms.
Heavier textbooks
Patil also said that over the last two years, all the state efforts of the state in reducing the weight of school bags have failed due to poor implementation. "To begin with, one of the mechanisms suggested by the state to reduce bag weight was to divide text books semester-wise, and to have 100-page note books. However, the new textbooks for Class 6 are heavier and bigger in size as compared to the old ones. On the one hand, schools are told to take measures to reduce bag weight while on the other hand, the state itself is increasing the bag weight" added Patil. She said that as per her findings, the weight of all the new Class 6 textbooks together is about a kilo more than the old ones.
Only 10% bags surveyed
Another important objection that Patil is going to raise in the court is that of number of schools surveyed by the state. As per data provided in the state report and through individual RTIs only 8-10 per cent schools in several districts like Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban and Akola have been surveyed. "Only 124 of the total 3,500 plus schools in a city like Mumbai were surveyed. The data thus, does not reflect even half the picture" added Patil. State Education Minister Vinod Tawde refused to comment on the issue.
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 "Petitioner-Swati-Patil")
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