There is a proposal to do away with leather schools for students in schools and replace them with canvas shoes. It is said the leather shoes are environmentally hazardous, unhealthy and an uncomfortable vestige of colonialism.
There is no reliable data to show how much the leather shoes are environmentally hazardous and unhealthy.
English-medium education is a vestige of colonialism. Before that education was in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic.
Why canvas shoes? Why not sandals or slippers? Why not allow students to come bare foot? In many villages students go to school bare foot.
HRD Ministry wrote to school boards to know their views and CBSE board came up with many complaints against canvas shoes. I refer to two of them.
1) Tanneries are hubs for dermatitis and other diseases which affect workers.
Without demand for leather shoes the tanneries will be shut. Workers will lose jobs. Will the factories where canvas shoes are made employ them?
2) Making of leather shoes involves cruelty to animals.
Leather is extracted from dead animals. Where is the question of cruelty?
IPCC had come out with a report about global warming and climate change. Many things mentioned in the report were found to be wrong.
Is the canvas shoe manufacturers lobby in touch with school boards?
Maneka Gandhi is behind the move to replace leather shoes with canvas shoes. Will Sonia Gandhi be pleased with Kapil Sibal if he agrees to the proposal of Maneka Gandhi?
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