The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) is considering filing an FIR against the publisher of a class 12 'Health and Physical Education' textbook that suggested hour glass figure, 36-24-36, to be the 'best size' for a woman.
A day after a twitter user shared a picture of that page of the book, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javdekar condemned the sexist remark and said the book "mentions unmentionables about women", reports the NDTV.
According to the textbook titled 'Health And Physical Education', the best 'size' for a female is 36-24-36. The book goes on to reason that Miss World and Miss University beauty pageants also take this body shape into consideration while judging the contestants.
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The book also cares to bother why 'females are not able to run properly' because 'bones of hips of females are wider' and 'knees are slightly apart.'
The book is written by Dr VK Sharma and published by Delhi-based New Saraswati House and taught at various schools affiliated to CBSE. It is, however, not brought out by NCERT.
Following outrage on social media, CBSE issued a statement, saying, "Schools are expected to exercise extreme care while selecting books of private publishers and the content must be scrutinised to preclude any objectionable content that hurts the feeling of any class, community, gender, religious group. Schools have to take responsibility of the content of the books prescribed by them."
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The textbook has done its bit to promote fat-shaming prevalent among teenagers and spread the notion that weight loss is matter of willpower. Weight is the most common reason students, particularly teenagers, are bullied in school.
This, however, is not the first incident about improper content being found in textbooks taught in CBSE schools in recent months.
Excerpts from a class IV environmental science textbook that suggested students to "kill a kitten" as part of an experiment had gone viral on social media, forcing the publisher to withdraw it from the market last month.
Similarly, a class XII Sociology book cited "ugliness" and physical disability of a girl as reasons behind the dowry issue prevalent in the country.
The HRD Ministry had last month said that CBSE has no mechanism to evaluate the quality of textbooks of private publishers.
"There is no mechanism to evaluate the quality of textbooks of private publishers. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has no mandate to prescribe or recommend the textbooks of private publishers in its affiliated schools," Minister of State for HRD Upendra Kushwaha had said in response to a written question in Lok Sabha.
