India has called upon her South Asian neighbours to jointly work for ensuring social development of the people along with economic growth. Education, a vital aspect of social development should not be missed out in the process.
Inaugurating the two-day 2nd meeting of the Regional Forum of Ministers of Social Development from South Asia co-hosted by UNESCO here in Delhi on Wednesday, The Union Minister for Human Resources Development, Arjun Singh said, “even the most impressive and robust economic progress is rendered meaningless if social development lags behind.”
He also said that one of the most critical aspects of social development was education. “Provision of free and compulsory education for the relevant age group of 6 to 14 years has been mandated by our Constitution as a fundamental right, and we are in the process of making a law dedicated to this objective,” he said.
He hoped that the promises made in the last meeting of the forum in the form of Bhurban Declaration would be translated into a realistic plan of action in the present meeting of the forum
As a sequel to the first Forum of Ministers on Social Development of South Asia who met on May 26-27, 2006 in Bhurban in Pakistan, this meeting is the second in the series of UNESCO’s and the region’s initiative to organise a network of South Asian ministers of social development. The purpose of the forum is to establish a network among the countries of the region to address issues related to social justice and development in the overall theme of the social sciences research and its policy-linkages and in particular, the contribution that social sciences can provide to the policy making process.
Singh further said, “even though there are limits to public funding, and there may be temptations to opt for market determined policies on grounds of efficiency, education can be left to the market forces only at our peril. That is why in India we have a nine-fold allocation proposed for education in our 11th five-year Plan over the 10th Plan. Expansion of opportunities must be accompanied by a concern for equity ? particularly, in the access to education for the marginalized sections of populations. Apart from education, there are equally good reasons for focusing on the other social development issues ? public health, for example”.
As agreed at Bhurban, India has been honoured by member countries by asking her to assume the chair of the forum for the current year. The theme selected for the of the current meeting is -. Transparency, Right to Information and Social Development’ reflects the shared vision of good governance common to all the governments of the region.
The ministers of social development from Afghanistan, Maldives, ministers of women, children and social welfare from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka and minister of education from Bhutan participated in the meeting alongwith the minister of social development of South Africa, Skweyiya, who is also the president of the Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Programme.
