Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble to find place in Karnataka state school textbooks

Bengaluru: Rio Olympics medalists, P V Sindhu and Sakshi Malik and former Indian cricket skippers, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, who have made Karnataka proud, will find a place in school textbooks that are under revision in the state.

Veteran freedom fighters from the state whose contribution has been largely ignored, will also be mentioned, according to Mr Baragur Ramachandrappa, head of the textbook review committee, which has been set up by the government to revise textbooks for classes I to X. The revision is being done after nearly seven years although textbooks are usually revised once in five years.

Speaking to DC, Mr Ramachandrappa said the committee was keen on including a section on P V Sindhu who won a silvee medal in shuttle badminton and Sakshi Malik, who won a bronze in women's wrestling in the recent Olympic games as well as on Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble to encourage students to take to sports. "There will also be a note on the winners of Dronacharya award from Karnataka. Unfortunately, the panel cannot mention the names of Arjuna award winners as the list is very long," he added.

For the firs time, the prose and poetry of Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, will be introduced in the state syllabus. Chapters on noted Kannada writers from Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka will also finda place in response to complaints that only South Karnataka writers are talked about. Women's issues, especially those concerning the girl child and human rights are also being accommodated . A chapter on dos and don'ts during natural disasters will be introduced as part of an awareness campaign.

Revealing that he had made it clear when accepting the job, that he would not tolerate political interference, Mr Ramachandrappa said so far there had been none.

“We only received a request to add a note on Rani Abbakka, a freedom fighter from coastal Karnataka and Narayana Guruji,"he added. Saying his aim was to make textbooks free from saffronisation as well as "Congressisation," he declared, " I don't want to show any favour to the Congress party just because the incumbent government appointed me to the post.”