83% Children Carry Bags Heavier Than Permitted Weight, Face Grave Health Risks
Children from schools across Kashmir are carrying school bags heavier than the recommended weight, a recent survey has revealed. In absence of any regulation, the heavy bags are posing serious health risks and developmental issues to the growing children.
In Kashmir schools, 83.7 percent of children carry bags heavier than 10 percent of body weight, a survey by Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar has revealed. The survey, carried out across government and private schools in four districts of Kashmir studied over 2000 children, has exposed the gross neglect of the recommendations regarding school bags.
As per the Children’s School Bag Act 2006, a schoolbag should not weigh more than 10 per cent of a child’s total body weight. However, in Kashmir schools, there are no regulations vis-à-vis school bags, giving educational institutes a free way to burden young shoulders with bags weighing as much as 20 percent of their body weight. “Only 16.3 percent children had school bags within the permissible weight,” reports the survey.
The heavy bags, as per health experts, are a health hazard and detrimental to the normal growth of children. “Heavy school bags cause posture problems. Children, under the load on their backs, walk bent which can cause kyphosis (excessive convex curvature of spine),” noted pediatrician Dr Altaf Hussain said. He added that the bag weight could also cause strain on muscles and nerves and pain in neck.
Consistent with the fears of health experts, the SPM Department survey has reported that over 50 percent school children “complained of backache”. The intensity of the pain in back ranged from mild to severe, as per the survey.
The researchers said they were surprised to note that the weight of the school bags was above the recommended limit in both government and private schools. In Srinagar district, just 2.6 percent private schools had school going children carrying bags with the permissible limit. The children in remaining 97.4 percent private schools had bags heavier than 10 percent body weight. Alarmingly 24.6 percent children in Srinagar private schools had bags as much as or over 20 percent body weight.
In rural districts also, situation was no better, as per the survey. In Anantnag, 91.5 percent children had bags weighing over the permissible limits. In Baramulla, this percentage stood at 85.2. In Budgam district, situation looked a little better with 73.2 percent schools making children carry heavier bags and 26.8 having bags with permissible weight.
Health experts said that school bag weight needed to be strictly monitored as children’s health was being risked with the current scenario. Dr S Salim Khan, Head Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at GMC Srinagar said that the bags could be leading to a “hunch backed generation”. “We were shocked to see that children in most schools, as young as 8 years, said they had pain in neck and back. This was never heard of before,” he said.
The SPM Department has video-profiled some cases illustrating the load of bags on Kashmir children. In one such video, shot at a school in Baramulla, a child weighing 37 kgs is carrying a bag weighing 7.5 kgs. Doctors said the “heavy bag syndrome” was a new disease in making and Kashmir children, with no regulations in place regarding the same, was especially under threat. “We have to fight it out. Children’s backs and shoulders are under tremendous stress. We need schools and civil society to wake up to this,” Dr Altaf said.
A recent survey conducted by ASSOCHAM under its Healthcare Committee has found that 68 per cent of school children under the age of 13 years across India may suffer from mild back pain, which can develop into chronic pain and later into hunchback.
