A day after the excerpts from a Class XII Physical Education textbook -- defining females with a shape of ‘36-24-36’ as the “best body shape” -- created an outrage on social media, the HRD Ministry today said that action will be taken against the against the private publisher of the book.
“Neither a book approved by CBSE nor published by NCERT. Action to be taken against pvt publisher,” tweeted Anil Swarup, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy.
The book titled "Health and Physical Education" written by Dr VK Sharma and published by Delhi-based New Saraswati House, is taught at various schools affiliated to CBSE.
“36-24-36 shape of females is considered the best. That is why in Miss World or Miss Universe competitions, such type of shape is also taken into consideration," read the excerpt from the chapter titled "Physiology and Sports" which went viral on Tuesday night.
Various Twitter users shared picture of the mentioned text and demanded that the publishers withdraw the content and schools replace the book in their curriculum.
“The social media networks have posted a news titled 'Class XII CBSE Physical Education textbook says/ certifies/ claims 36-24-36 is the best figure for females' as mentioned in a Class XII textbook. The book referred to is titled 'Health and Physical Education' authored by one Dr V K Sharma and published by New Saraswati House. The reference to CBSE in this news is vehemently denied. It is totally incorrect and does not have any credible base,” read the statement by CBSE on Wednesday.
The incident comes against the backdrop of a raging debate on lack of scrutiny of the curriculum and content taught in schools. The HRD Ministry had last month said that CBSE has no mechanism to evaluate the quality of textbooks of private publishers.
