Heavy school bags
(Syed Hussain Mosavi, karachi)
IT is amazedly to see children,
most of them barely four foot tall, carry huge schoolbags to school five days a
week, carrying them from their homes to the assembly, then to class, and then
back home again. The lucky ones have transport to and from school, but even they
have to carry their own bags while in the school premises.
I`ve often had the shocking experience of lifting the bag of my nine-year-old
sister when she comes home from school, and even I have trouble lifting it up.
It can weigh anywhere from 12 to 20 kgs depending on the day`s schedule, and
this I have measured using a weighing scale.
Children this age (9 to10 years) in general weigh no more than 30 kgs.
Therefore, these children are on a daily basis lifting almost half their own
weight for an hour or more.
Parents are either unaware or too busy to care about such seemingly small
problems.
It is the right of these children to be taken proper care of, inside and outside
their homes, and it is the responsibility of both the parents and the schools to
make sure they get this right.