Light notebooks for happier kids

Municipal students in east Delhi are expected to shed a few hundred grams off their school bags.

Thanks to the paperback notebooks proposed to be distributed among them which will take a big load off their back.

Hard-bound notebooks in East Delhi Municipal Corporation will soon make way for paperback notebooks which promise to weigh much less, said a senior official with the east civic agency.

The new notebooks are expected to be distributed after the summer vacations and the proposal is likely to cost over Rs 2 crore.

The issue was brought up at an East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee meeting on Thursday. Councillors both from the ruling and opposition supported the matter.

Usha Devrani Shastri, a Bharatiya Janata Party councillor from Karawal Nagar East, said that providing paperback to the primary students notebooks will even save money.

“The corporation can save money by distributing paperback copies to kids studying in primary classes as these notebooks will be cheaper than the hard-bound ones,” said Shastri.

Leader of Opposition Varyam Kaur echoed similar views. “These lighter notebooks won’t tire the children,” she said. The chairman of the Standing Committee B B Tyagi said that these notebooks can also be easily procured.

“As such notebooks are available with every books shops, so it won’t be problem to obtain them,” Tyagi said.

There are over 300 schools under the limits of the East Corporation, in which over 2.5 lakh students study.

East Corporation provides free text books and notebooks to all children studying in primary schools every year.

These books are purchased from Delhi Bureau of Text Books and distributed to schools through zonal stores at the beginning academic session, an East Corporation’s official said.