Young shoulders, heavy burden

Badrul-Duja

Childhood is simplicity and innocence. Children should not be interfered with in their childhood. A child is a free spirit and therefore there should be interference whatsoever to disturb their innocence and simplicity. They are free from evil motives, free from materialism, free from hate and greed.
They should not be robbed off their freedom either at their own homes or schools. A child is a blooming and colorful rose and spreads fragrance in the garden of humanity.
Let them grow in the cradle of nature. As they grow they should be helped to grow into a humane. However, we force them with certain things like heavy school bags against their wish. As they grow old, they will have mustered capacity to carry books and carry on business as well but not when their shoulders are too young to lift the heavy bags.
Tiny tots are carrying number of books on their shoulders which they can’t bear. They have so many books to carry in the morning and wait for his school bus. After getting exhausted from day’s hectic schedule at school, they have to carry the bags again to home. It is a kind of war they are facing every day.
Wasn’t Baba Bulleh Shah a child, Wasn’t Rumi a child, wasn’t Lincoln a Child? They never carried huge bags on their shoulders. They carried good heads over shoulders and flourished in their hearts.
We make our children suffer from back pain at a very young age. School going children are suffering from muscle strains, early development of bad back posture, neck pain, upper shoulder pain, suffer with irreversible back deformities like Kyphosis-spine bent forward or Scoliosis-spine bent side, constant headaches, breathing problems through Kyphoscoliosis which causes chronic lung diseases that in turn damages the heart, degeneration of inter-vertebral discs etc.
Our school children have to carry several notebooks, good number of books and diaries. Adding more burdens to their childhood miseries is pencil box, lunch box and water bottles which make them walk like old man.
The heavier school bags mean more syllabi, more homework which results in more pressure on them at very early age. After school they are again not let off as they have to attend to tuition centers. Where is their childhood? Who will take them to the gardens and playfields? We are treating them as children and are harming their innocence.
The writer has also filed PIL against heavy school bags with the J&K High Court.