Big burden on small shoulders

PAKISTANIS would hardly have thought that the weight of schoolbags is an issue that warrants discussion and debate in legislative assemblies. But heavy schoolbags are a topic that has been raised in many a legislative assembly around the world, including the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and India. In other countries like Australia and the United States, education authorities and medical associations have also been focussing on this back-breaking problem which is crippling students more than the cost of education.

Here in Pakistan, however, there is very little awareness so far, even among school administrations, about the potential health hazards posed by excessively heavy schoolbags. The result is many schoolchildren, specially those living in cities, are developing physical health problems from lugging bags that are too heavy in proportion to their body weight.

Eight-year-old Saira, for instance, weighs only 23kg. But every morning, for five days in a week, the small-framed little girl is dropped off at her school in F-7 in Islamabad with a backpack load of 4 to 5kg. This is about a fifth of her body weight.

According to a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the international medically accepted norm is that schoolbags should weigh less than 10 per cent of the child’s body weight. More than this, he says, can cause problems with the child’s back, shoulders, neck and posture.

Research studies on schoolchildren in Australia and America have confirmed this fact, he says. Doctors there maintain that since the human skeleton does not form completely until a person is between 19 and 22 years old, overloading the spine and the person’s ability to carry weights can cause adverse physical changes.

Saira’s mother says her daughter frequently complains of back pain, but refuses to lighten her schoolbag. The reason: fear of punishment. Even though Saira has been given a timetable, she prefers to bring all books because the teacher may ask for any of them.

An experienced teacher in Saira’s school gives another reason for the increasing weight of schoolbags: the syllabus has widened considerably over the years and there is more content for the children to cope with, and thus the number of books, and the weight of schoolbags, have multiplied over the decades.

Schoolbags with wheels are of no help at all, as least not for eleven-year-old Uzma, who goes to a reputable private school in Islamabad. Herself weighing 33kg only, she carries depending on the timetable a 5 to 7kg backpack load up two flights of stairs every morning. A bag with wheels, which by itself weighs more than one without wheels, will only make her ascent harder.

The heavy schoolbag is affecting Uzma’s posture. She walks with her upper torso bent forward, even when not carrying the bag. She also complains of muscular strain on her shoulders and at the back of her neck. Her mother also believes Uzma’s growth heightwise is being stunted by the heavy bag she has to carry. Uzma says her load would lessen if the school stops using hardback registers and copies. Until then, she is praying that her classroom will not be on the top floor again next year.

A teacher in Uzma’s school says that school administrations could do a lot for the children by providing lockers or at least desks with locks so that the children can keep most books in school, taking home only those that they need to. But hardly any Pakistani school in Islamabad, not even the private schools, has this facility for their students.

A parent suggested to her 12-year-old son, Ahmad, that his textbooks be photocopied and he could bring to school daily only those chapters that will be covered. He refused to follow his mother’s advice because he said the teachers do not tell which chapters they would be doing for the next day and he would only get scolded for not having his books. Ahmad, himself weighing 38kg, is a Class VII student at a government school in G-10 sector and his backpack weighs 7 to 9kg depending on the timetable.

Ahmad’s mother firmly believes that school and college teachers can make a big difference if they are more careful and considerate. Some subjects, like English, have more than one textbook and if students are told exactly which textbook they will be using for the next day, they can be saved from carrying the others which they will not be needing. She also believes that the school authorities and educationists could easily develop systems, curriculum and schedules for the children such that their schoolbags are not too heavy.

But when she brought up the bag weight problem to her son’s teacher and the principal, both shrugged and said they realized the problem but there was nothing they could do. Is it really nothing they can do or that they simply don’t want or can’t be bothered to do anything? she lamented.

Compare this attitude with that in India. Several members had raised the issue of children’s heavy schoolbags in the Legislative Assembly in Bangalore and the minister for primary and secondary education promised to take steps to reduce the burden by issuing guidelines in this regard. The Mumbai city has gone even a step further: it has a law specifying the body weight to bag weight ratio for each age group of schoolchildren.

Similarly, in Hong Kong a motion on reducing the weight of schoolbags was introduced and debated in the Legislative Council in 1998. The government was asked to formulate appropriate education policies and measures with emphasis on promoting curriculum reform, reducing both the volume and weight of textbooks and exercise books, and improving the facilities for children to keep their books in schools.

So also several years ago in the state of Ireland in the United Kingdom, the ministry of education and science had initiated an awareness-raising campaign by disseminating a report on the potential health hazards posed by heavy schoolbags, with an accompanying circular to all primary and secondary schools. It also distributed information leaflets and posters to all schools, highlighting the problem and outlining a range of local measures that can be adopted to alleviate the problem.

Some countries are using IT and the e-book concept to lighten the schoolbag burden. The Malaysian government has pin- pointed 85 schools to start a pilot project called smart schools, whereby instead of heavy schoolbags, students will only be carrying laptops to classes. The Malaysian education ministry’s target is to turn all 10,000 primary and secondary schools throughout the country into smart schools by 2010.

The Singapore government is also planning to replace heavy schoolbags with the eduPAD, a portable and wireless hand-held computer that will not only enable students to read their textbooks (reduced to postage stamp-sized chips), but also scribble notes on, surf the internet and e-mail questions to their teachers. At the same time, teachers can feed in worksheets and assignments for students to take home.

In Pakistan the conventional schoolbag may still be around for some time yet, and students like Saira, Uzma and Ahmad in Islamabad are unlikely to be able to experience e-books studying in their lifetime. But their parents are hoping that the education authorities in conjunction with the schools will start addressing the heavy schoolbag problem that their children are being burdened with and suggest measures to alleviate it. Now, they say, is a good time to do it, specially since the authorities are planning a comprehensive overhaul of the curriculum and the education system.

Farmers await implementation of relief package

THE future of thousands of Pakistani villagers returning to their homes along the 220-kilometre Sialkot working boundary remains doubtful due to non-implementation of the Punjab government’s relief package.

As many as 750 villages in Sialkot and Narowal districts were evacuated by the security forces following heightened tension between Pakistan and India three months ago. Villagers were shifted to the six relief camps established by the district governments of Sialkot and Narowal under the supervision of the army.

Most villagers are staying in relief camps or with their relatives. However, hundreds of them have started going back to reconstruct their abodes.

These villagers are dependent on seasonal crops for their livelihood. Their crops were destroyed by Indian shelling creating economic difficulties for them. Now, they are looking for sowing crops for improving their condition.

Their ruined houses are their total assets to rebuild their lives threatened by renewal of shelling by Indian forces. Whenever tension mounts along the working boundary, these villagers have to migrate to safer places.

As many as 495 border villages of Sialkot district and 295 villages of Narowal district were declared calamity hit by the Punjab government due to Indian shelling. The government had written off small agricultural loans to the tune of Rs25,000 and provided relaxation in the payment of agricultural taxes till the situation returned to normal.

But the farmers have protested that the teams of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan and the Small Business Finance Corporation are continuously harassing them for the recovery of the written-off loans. More than 40 farmers were arrested by the recovery teams in Sialkot and Shakargarh tehsils. They were freed after they made payment by selling their cattle and property or by borrowing money.

The farmers in the border areas have started sowing crops in the fields cleared by the Pakistan security fores of landmines.

More than 85 border villages in Bajwat sector are without electricity for the last seven months. The main supply line had been badly damaged by the Indian shelling. As these villages were officially evacuated, Wapda postponed the project of laying an alternative line for restoring power supply. The people are facing great difficulties due to the non-availability of electricity in this hot and humid weather. They have urged the Wapda chairman to take personal interest in laying the line. Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool during his visit to Sialkot’s border villages had announced that the official lands situated at safer places in Sialkot and Narowal districts would be allotted to villagers affected by Indian shelling. The district governments are now making feasibility reports in this regard. This will be helpful in averting loss of life and property and resolving the issue of permanent settlement of these villagers.

In death as in life Ehsaan Jaffri symbolized India’s battle with fascism

AT the end of his lecture to a rightwing Hindu group that invites him religiously on every Independence Day as a symbolic Muslim guest, Maulana Waheeduddin Khan broke into tears. “I hope and pray to Almighty Allah that this country comes out from its fathomless difficulties. I hope and pray that the walls of hatred will come down and people will live in harmony with each other,” said the aging man of God before handing over the microphone to Ashok Singhal, who we all know as the head of the rabid and essentially fascist Vishwa Hindu Parishad group.

Just before winding up, the Maulana had finished recounting for his scarcely interested audience the number of times the Holy Quran refers to Insaan and how many times to Annas. He tried to argue that from these references it was clear that Islam was all about human beings and about fellowship between people, Insaan and Annas.

“Utter nonsense,” proclaimed Singhal without losing a moment, even before the Maulana had finished wiping his last tear. “I carry this piece of paper every day of the year. It contains verses from the Quran,” Singhal thundered. Then he read something from a single sheet of paper on which paragraphs were typed in Hindi. “It says here clearly that a Muslim should kill a kafir when he sees one.”

The heads nodded in approval at this “unmasking” of the true face of Islam. Maulana Waheedudin squirmed. The function over, he shook hands with Singhal and they went their different ways.

Not many years ago, there was a poet, a Muslim poet, who was not too happy with Islam either. But he had a different way, and clearly a different motive for, putting across his point of view.

Sab tere siwa kafir, akhir iska matlab kya?

Sar phira de insaa’n ka aisa khabtey mazhab kya?

(Everyone except you is an infidel, how stupid can you get? What is this obsession you have with religion, this silly fascination that seems to have gotten to your head?)

Yas Yagana Changezi, the Urdu poet, was tormented and tortured by his predominantly Muslim, orthodox clerical Muslim, detractors for speaking his mind.

In the United States the University of North Carolina chose a book about Islam as summer reading for incoming freshmen this fall.

The school’s critics object that the book selected by UNC, Approaching the Quran: The Early Revelations by Michael A. Sells, is a sanitized view of the religion, leaving out those parts of the text that advocate slaying of infidels. The author, in fact, has explained that he purposely concentrated on older sections of the text that don’t deal with violence.

This particular point of view is apparently supported by the Christian Science Monitor: “It’s hard to imagine that student discussions won’t delve into the contrast between what they’ve read and radical Islamists’ call for jihad against perceived enemies of Islam. That’s a useful discussion. Some students may recognize parallels in their own sacred texts — for example, grimmer sections of the Old Testament versus passages like the 23rd Psalm.

“Those who would keep students from gaining some insight into Islam have to take care they’re not mirroring the intolerance they profess to abhor. Learning about another religion should be no threat to one’s own. It should give a broader understanding of mankind’s search for the divine,” said the CSM recently.

At any rate, going by Singhal’s argument that Islam preaches hatred of kafirs, an idea that is fast gaining ground in the West too, the mobs in Gujarat should have targeted the groups of Muslims who are supposed to be preaching hatred. But Singhal’s men killed Ehsaan Jaffri in Ahmedabad on Feb 28. Jaffri was not calling for the murder of kafirs. He did not even subscribe to the idea of kafirs as distinct from other fellow humans.

They first beheaded him, then cut him into pieces and finally set his remains on fire. Some of Jaffri’s close relatives were similarly dealt with. It was ironical. All of us knew what was going on in Gujarat that day, at approximately the same time as the nation was riveted to the budget speech of Yashwant Sinha in parliament.

It was only after the speech was over, well past 12 midnight, when politicians decided that it was time they also looked at what was happening in Gujarat. When they subsequently met to discuss Gujarat, not a word on the 73-year-old Jaffri’s death came from the government or the speaker, a courtesy usually shown when fellow parliamentarians pass away.

Jaffri was elected Congress MP from Ahmedabad when Indira Gandhi, his very own leader, was routed in the 1977 elections. Before that he was a communist trade unionist. He was also the secretary of the Progressive Writers’ Association, an organization that still remains officially banned for whatever good reasons Nehru saw in his decision.

Jaffri’s book of verse is called Qandeel, (The Lamp.) Published in 1994, it is a collection of his poems from the time of his association with progressive writers. It carries a forward by Majrooh Sultanpuri, himself a notable progressive poet.

The book was sent to me by Mohammad Hasan Jauhar, a leftist social worker, who said it was the last copy available with Jaffri’s widow. Jauhar is a banker by profession. He and his wife have called off their migration to New Zealand to help found an organization in Ahmedabad to tend to the victims of the pogrom. It is called Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking. Its main purpose is to keep the influence of mullahs minimal in the relief operations, a tough call made tougher by the Hindu right’s assault on the liberal face of India — Muslim, Christian, Hindu Sikh doesn’t matter.

Thanks to the book I am able to put a face to the name that has been haunting so many of us. Jaffri appears to be in his mid-50s in the picture. A dark jacket and a tie, worn around a crumpled collar, intense eyes, a full but graying crop of hair, neatly combed with a side parting and a clean-shaven face. He could pass for a cousin of Kundan Lal Sehgal.

As the poems would tell you, Jaffri was no narrow-minded religious bigot. From what we gather he was a communist romantic and, therefore, an atheist. His house was burnt down twice during communal violence in Gujarat. In the violence of 1969 he spent some time in refugee camps.

Singhal’s bigoted notion of Islam and Waheeduddin Khan’s romantic idea of a Muslim have little to do with Jaffri’s reality, as they do indeed with a majority of Muslims both in India and abroad. Yes, at times Jaffri could be accused of maudlin nationalism, the kind, for example, that Arundhati Roy would reject.

Here’s one example from Jaffri’s nationalist personality, which only heightens the irony of his lynching:

Geeton Se Teri Zulfon Ko Meera Ne Sanwara

Gautam Ne Sada Di Tujhe Nanak Ne Pukara

Khusro Ne Kai Rangon Se Daaman Ko Nikhara

Har Dil Mein Muhabbta Ki Ukhuwat Ki Lagan Hai

Ye Mera Watan Mera Watan Mera Watan Hai

Jaffri was an anti-nuclear peace campaigner too. In this poem he commands a young man to join the battle against a conspiracy being hatched to make a bomb. If this poem was published in 1994, and there is no date given to suggest it could be older, then Jaffri was acutely aware of an issue that had not yet engaged the attention of many a latter-day peacenik.

Aye Nau Jawan

Kya Khabar Hai Tujhey

Tu To Befikr Apney Hathon Mein

Phoolon Ka Ghuncha Liye

Pur Amn Sadak Par Gaatey Huey

Gungunatey Huey

Apni Shaffaf Kanchan Si Ankhon Mein

Aaneywaley Haseen Lamohon Ki Jhalak

Basaaye Huey

Kharama Kharama

Shaadman Chala Ja Raha Hai

Shaadman Chala Ja Raha Hai

Ghar Par Tere

Nigahein Sadak Par Bichchaye Huey

Muntazir Hai Koi

Tere Liye

Aur Khush O Khurram

Tanomand Beta Tera

Apni Maa Key Zanoo Par Kasmasaye Huey

Chamkti Hui Apni Aankhon Mein

Neeley Aakash Ke

Saarey Tarey Basaye Huey

Aur Apni Masoom Hasti Ki

Dilkash Khushbuein

Fiza Mein Rachaye Huey

Chahchaha Raha Hoga — Papa Papa

Aur Tu Soch Raha Hoga Ki Tu

Yekayak Pahonch Kar

Apni Mehabooba Ki Zulfo’n Mein

Saja Dega Phoolon Ka Ghuncha

Aur Apney Lakhtey Jigar Ko

Apni Baaho’n Mein Bhar Lega Tu

Magar Kya Khabar Hai Tujhey Ai Nau Jawaan

Kaisi Saazish Ho Rahi Hai

Tere Peechchey

Apni Is Haseen Duniya Ko

Jahaan Hum Sab Ke Ghar Hain

Jin Gharon Mein

Hamari Mehboobanein Apney Bachcho’n Ko Liye

Ghar Ki Dahleezon Par Sar Lagaye Huey

Khwabon Ki Duniyaen

Sajaaye Bhaithee Hain

Aur Hamari Munatzir Hain

Pal Bhar Mein Sab Khatm Ho Jayega

Kaisi Saazish Ho Rahi Hai

Aitam Bum Banaye Ja Rahey Hain

Abhi Waqt Hai

Waqt Baqi Hai Kuchch Karney Ke Liye

Apney Khwabon Se Bahar Nikal

Aur Qabl Iskey Ki Atum Bum Girein

Gharon Par Hamarey

Hoshiyar Ho Jaao

Abhi Waqt Baqi Hai

Ghar Bachaney Ke Liye

Anatomy of a dacoity

AUGUST 24, 2002. It was around 10 in the evening. I was watching TV in the company of my four-year-old grandson Hasan. My wife was in the process of bringing the tray into the kitchen after my mother had finished her dinner. My son-in-law Nayyar was upstairs in the study trying to send an e-mail to his sister in Saudi Arabia. Sadia, my daughter, being in the family way, was resting in her room. Salman, my eight-year-old grandson, was in the washroom. Life looked normal and peaceful, like any other day.

Suddenly, there was a small commotion. In barged four uninvited guests, their faces covered with scarves, two of them holding TT pistols and the other two flashing daggers. No salam-dua, just a curt command:

“Chalo, chalo, nikalo jo kuchh hai! (Hand over whatever you have). One of them pointed a dagger at little Hasan whom I had picked up in my arms. Salman by now had come out of the washroom and was being escorted with a TT pointed at his head by one of the visitors. Salman came nestled close to me, feeling secured. Two other desperados went upstairs and brought Nayyar down. After some moments of flashing of daggers and TTs in our faces, the family were herded into Salman’s room. They started emptying the cartons containing old toys and books. They pulled the bedside drawers and threw them on the floor. One of them got interested in a remote-controlled car, a toy, sent by Naveed from Bahrain.” How does this work?” he asked.

“Uncle, there is no battery in it,” Said Salman. The man threw the toy away. Now he picked up an earthen piggybank in which my grandson collected his coins. Uncle Dakoo (bandit) hurled it to the floor with a bang, scattering the contents all over the place. Salman felt a lump in his throat and glanced at me helplessly. “Be a brave boy!” I whispered into his ear.”Uncle, you can take my coins.”

“Chup karo! (Keep silent),” said the uncle.

The other three uncles were, in the meanwhile, ransacking other rooms, pulling out everything from the cupboards and throwing them in a big heap on the floor — clothes, shoes, files, papers, toiletries, cassettes and other items.

“Maal kahan rakha hai? Jaldi karo, nikalo, warna sub ko khatam kar dengay.” (Where have you kept money and valuables. Be quick, give us all, otherwise we will kill all of you).

“Take whatever you want,” we said.

“Aik lakh rupia nikalo, warna bachay ko lay ja raha hoon (Give us Rs100,000, or else we will take the child along with us),” one of them moved forward and pulled Hasan’s arm. I held on to my little grandson firmly. “Agar tum nay bachay ko liya to uskay liye tumhain hum ko marna paray ga (You can kidnap the child over our dead bodies only).” I looked into his eyes. Though quite frightened, I was now prepared to give my life for the child. The man turned and dragged my wife and daughter towards the stairs. “Chalo! (Come along).” They went upstairs. I had no idea what they were up to.

While I sat on the bed holding my two grandsons and prayed, the two ladies went through the worst humiliation of their life in the bedroom upstairs. My wife took some time to find the keys to the cupboards. This infuriated the three bandits and one of them (they called him Commando) started to abuse her in the most filthy language and slapped her a few times. He was capable of hitting an lady old enough to be his mother. One of them mouthed obscenities at my wife, while Commando held the dagger at her throat and his next in command poked the barrel of his TT in her ribs. My daughter begged them to spare her mother.

After a wait of one hour that seemed like eternity, they came down and we were together once again and happy to be alive. But another crisis developed. My 92-year-old mother, though confined to bed, is mentally quite alert. We have provided her with a little bell that she rings when she wants anything. Sensing some thing extraordinary, she rang the bell to find out what was happening. This frightened the wits out of the bandits. “Yeh kia ho raha hai, yeh kia ho raha hai! (What is going on, what is going on). They ran in all directions trying to locate the source of the sound, finally reaching it. The brave Commando made a swift assault on my mother’s room, snatched the bell from the frail little hand and wanted to hit the old lady with it. “Burhiya, bahut chaalaak bun rahi hai! (Old woman, you are trying to be too clever).

After some time when all the “commandos” had made a swift exit after achieving the mission, Salman asked: “Nanoo, woh dakoo Bari Dadi ko kiya samajh rahay thay? (Grandpa, what the bandits took the great grandmother for). Were they afraid that she would pull out a TT from under her pillow and shoot them?” “She might well have done it if she had one. You know, she is very brave.”

“Am I not brave too, Nanoo?” Asked my grandson. “Of course, you are. So are your Nani (grandmother) and your mother.” I reassured Salman.

But I am not sure if I have succeeded.—S.M. Shahid

NFC award: fears & hopes

TAMEER-I-SINDH writes that the announcement of the seventh National Financial Commission award is expected by the end of this month. According to reports, no consensus has yet been developed on the award. Punjab, which has been receiving its share on the basis of population since 1977, is still adamant that the same formula should be adopted this time also. On the other hand, Sindh and Balochistan are insisting that the disbursement of the award must be based on resources, economic backwardness and geographical size of the provinces.

The two deprived provinces have several complaints against Islamabad regarding the award. They demand that the loans they had received from the Centre should be written off but Islamabad is not willing even to waive the mark-up. The provinces want to receive 50 per cent of tax revenue generated by them under the award but the Federation does not seem to be willing to do so.

It may be recalled here that the last NFC award of 1997, which is still in practice, was imposed on the provinces by a caretaker regime against their consent. The two provinces are still unhappy over this arrangement. Now they are also worried that whether or not the coming award would do justice to them.

After coming into power, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had not only admitted the existing disparity between the four provinces of the country but had also promised to remove the imbalance. Now time has come for him to see what he had done and what should be done in this regard. If he really wants to improve the lot of the smaller provinces and remove their grievances against Islamabad and Lahore, his government should present a just and exemplary NFC award. The Centre should see the provinces as its offsprings and treat them as equal. It should also view which province is legging behind in development and what could be done to bring it at par with others.

Besides, the ministers and bureaucrats of Sindh must play their due role in this game. They have often been seen sacrificing the interests of the province for their personal benefit. At the Aug 30-31 session of the NFC, eyes of the Sindh people will be set on them to see what role they play for securing justice to the province. Sindh, which had been the most developed province at the time of Independence, is now lagging behind Punjab and the NWFP, in this field. The reason being the treatment meted out to it by the Federation and failure of the representatives of Sindh to raise a strong voice for its rights. Now, both of these practices should be abandoned, and the NFC award should bear witness to it.

Kawish says the government, while announcing the withdrawal of general sales tax (GST) on drugs, has confessed that its imposition was a mistake. However, the question that arises now is, who will make the druggists reduce the prices of medicines? Whenever the price of anything is increased in our country, it is never reduced, because of inefficiency of the government machinery. With the same situation on the drug front, the people would have to suffer for the blunder committed by the government.

According to Sach, with the latest breaches in Dadu and Mithrao canals, which have flooded six villages and crop on thousands of acres, such events have become the order of the day in water-starved Sindh. In the midst of the ongoing water shortage, which has deprived several Sindh cities of even potable water, the loss of this precious commodity due to canal breaches is a great sin. And the sinner is the impotent irrigation department, whose corrupt officials are exploiting even the water shortage to deepen the crisis. The frequency with which breaches in various canals are occurring demands a thorough investigation into the matter. Besides, the affected people need to be rehabilitated.