This petition comes in light of CBSE's cut down of syllabus for the academic year of 2020-2021. While CBSE was quick to remove chapters on critical issues such as secularism, nationalism, citizenship, challenges to democracy, it didn't do so * permanently * for one chapter called Ranga's Marriage,  written by Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, in the textbook 'Snapshots' for English of class 11th. 

      Whatever the writer's intentions may have been with their piece, we can't  ignore that the chapter encourages pedophilia. Ranga is a 28 y/o man who comes to his village after completing his studies. The narrator is looking to arrange his marriage, and does so with an 11 y/o girl named Ratna. . They get married, 3 years later she's had her first kid who turns two  and is now expecting a second one. In addition, through an analogy between Ratna and a mango, the writer encourages objectification as well. Ratna is raped since minors can't consent.

      India is a country grappling with a huge problem of rape, sexual assault and harassment of women, and children in particular. The latest NCRB report of 2019 shows that 21, 605 child rapes were recorded in India in 2018. There are laws to protect children against such crimes: POCSO and the IT Act 2000. However, in accordance with the data of the last 10 years, child sexual abuse cases have risen by 6 times. 

    I believe, and I'm sure many others too, that the roots to such problems lie in our education. While every child in India may not get the proper sex education from their parents and while the degree and quality of education in our country varies greatly, almost 95% of children in India study under the CBSE board. Which means that whoever has studied in 11th and has had this book in their syllabus, has studied this chapter as well- and that music be a million students. There are children who are survivors of child sexual abuse and CBSE giving a platform to this writer and including their piece in our syllabus has somewhere invalidated their trauma and has also made a mockery out of it. As a young girl myself, I'm truly disturbed that this is what's being taught to students like me. CBSE must be held accountable for its actions and permanently remove this chapter for good and must  curate out curriculum carefully. Because this is unacceptable. 

THE PICTURE THAT YOU'RE SEEING IN THE PETITION IS A SNIPPET FROM THE STORY ABOUT THE OBJECTIFICATION OF RATNA.