PUDUCHERRY: Insisting that investment in education was the most constructive one, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira kumar said, “In spite of several pathbreaking legislative initiatives to address the problem, it is still a fact that our socio-political system has not ensured that at least a majority of children between the ages of 6 and 14 are in school.’’
She was addressing the gathering at the inaugural function of the Mother Teresa Centenary Celebration and the release of a commemorative postal stamp on former Pondy Chief Minister and freedom fighter V Venkatasubha Reddiar to mark his birth centenary.
Quoting a Chinese saying that if you want to plan for one year plant paddy, for ten years plant a tree and for one hundred years, open a school, she said that investment in education was a constructive idea for a country like India. “Education is the primary vehicle by which the economically and socially marginalised people can lift themselves out of the mire of poverty and equip themselves with the means to participate fully in community affairs.”
She was of the opinion that education would help to inculcate the essential social and moral values among citizens.
“One of the major tasks that education performs in a democratic society is the preparation of young citizens for the roles and responsibilities they must be ready to take on in their years ahead, which is extremely crucial in a culturally, socially, linguistically and ethnically diverse society such as ours.”
Meira Kumar, who had earlier unveiled the statute of her father and former deputy Prime Minister, the late Babu Jagjivan Ram at Lawspet, said that her father was a crusader for social justice and he fought against discrimination on the basis of caste because he believed that it was the root cause of poverty.
“During his more than half a century long public life, he used to draw the attention of the country to the need to empower the socially, economically and educationally marginalised sections of our society. Their upliftment remained his consistent concern all along,” she added.
The doughty politician, who also inaugurated an old age home and a residential school for Scheduled Caste students in the same function, said “In a country where the social system is weak, it is essential that we take initiatives to care for the aged. This can also be achieved only through the proactive initiatives of the government, the private sector and NGOs.
Meira said that she was happy that the UT government was taking several initiatives in this regard.