Days after a Class XII Physical Education textbook stating that body measurements of 36-24-36 were the best figures for women sparked widespread outrage, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has filed a case in the Preet Vihar police station against the private publisher of the book and the author.
The accused — New Saraswati House (India) Pvt Ltd, which published the book titled Health and Physical Education and the author Dr V.K. Sharma — have been booked under Section 6 (indecent representation of women (Prohibition) Act 1986) and relevant sections of the IPC, the police said.
Dr Sharma is a professor in the Department of Physical Education, DAV College, Cheeka (Kaithal) in Haryana.
Registering an FIR, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Omvir Singh told The Hindu that they would seize all copies of the book in circulation. “The investigation has begun and in due course, all the accused in the case will be arrested,” he said.
“The action was taken after several complaints were reported on Wednesday, stating ‘Class XII CBSE Physical Education textbook claims 36-24-36 is the best figure for females’. We strongly condemn the view and we issued a clarification as well saying that the Board has not prescribed the controversial book,” said CBSE Public Relations Officer Rama Sharma.
The Board had also set up a committee to check the contents of the book and the members concluded that the text was not in consonance with the spirit of the syllabus. The panel also said the publisher and author have committed criminal misconduct by writing and selling the books to students.
“The publisher has also caused loss of reputation, goodwill and credibility of CBSE,” the Board statement said.
“The Board neither subscribes nor encourages irrelevant, sexist or derogatory references to any gender specially women,” she said.
The Board has also clarified that if the schools choose to add books by private publishers in their curriculum then they must take responsibility of the same. “The content must be scrutinized to preclude any objectionable content that hurts the feelings of any class, community, gender, religious group in society if prescribing books having such content, the school will have to take the responsibility of such content,” said Ms Sharma adding that the manager and principal of the school must sign a written declaration stating the same on their website.
Published - April 15, 2017 10:47 pm IST
