Context: Baste ka Bojh Kam project, being piloted in one govt school of each district, has reduced the bag weights to a third for the students.
Relevance:
Mains: GS II- Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Case Study:
- Baste Ka Bojh Kam is a state-wide pilot project in Rajasthan- one school in each of the state’s 33 districts- where the government has implemented Baste Ka Bojh Kam (BKBK) project to make the school bags weigh less.
- The books these children hold now were rebid trimester-wise, instead of being subject-wise.
- For example, a Class 1 student will carry 1 book in a trimester, and this book has all the topics to be covered from Hindi, English, Maths for that trimester, instead of 3 books — one each per subject.
- Thus, rather than taking 3-4 books of the individual subject, the students are taking just one book to school.
- While it was initially announced for Classes 1 to 5, the pilot project was eventually restricted to Classes 1 to 3.
- The project comes in the backdrop of the Ministry of Human Resource Development asking all states and Union Territories last year to fix the weight of school bags.
- Following the directions, the Rajasthan government partnered with Piramal Foundation and started the BKBK project to implement a pilot project and study the scalability of the concept.
- The psychological pressure has reduced since the children have to face just one book now, and the new books are more colorful and interactive too.
- As part of the study, the feedback was sought from as many as 531 students, 172 parents, 92 teachers, 18 principals, and 12 officials.
- A total of 72.9% of students said that they were bothered about heavy bags,
- 42% said that heavy bag acts as a hindrance for them from going to school.
- Among parents, 40.70% felt that the heavyweight of bags was one of the reasons for their child’s unwillingness to go to school.
- However, after the distribution of the new book, 69% of students said that they feel “lighter” both physically and mentally.
- As many as 91.3% of teachers also said that the project should be implemented in the entire state.
