“Instead of narrowing down, the caste and class pide is widening day by day. It is a sensitive issue, which is ruthlessly being handled by insensitive people, who don’t want this gap to be filled for their own selfish interests.” These views were expressed by Dr. Charnjit Singh Atwal, Speaker Punjab Legislative Assembly while addressing the 3rd National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDORs) at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Atwal said that there is need to educate not only our own kith and kin but to educate the masses so as to bring a revolutionary transformation in the society, which has been a victim of this devilish pide. To achieve this we have to lay special emphasis on the primary education, which is the basis of formulating a strong base of the society and without primary education no nation can think of becoming great, he added.
He further said, “Although a lot is being done to provide free primary education through various government programs and schemes, however, many difficulties are being faced to enforce them effectively due to economic disparity and social conditions of the weaker sections of the society. He said that due to shortage of resources and lack of political will, this system suffers from massive gaps including shortage of infrastructure, high pupil to teacher ratio and poor levels of teacher training. He said that I appeal to all government agencies, NGOs, NRIs and big business houses to extend their whole hearted support for the effective implementation of primary education especially to the weaker sections of the society.
Mr. Atwal said that we need to participate in the social processes and activate ourselves for our social economic and political development for which we have gathered here today. He further said that the basic idea behind the reservation policy was to provide proportionate representation to the people who had long been deprived, suppressed and victimized by the caste and class ridden society, but these job quotas and reservations are facing a great opposition socially as well as politically. Dalits, which form about one fourth of India's population, and make 4 per cent of the world's population have the poorest socio- economic human development indicators. They also pose a daunting developmental challenges and that is why all the efforts have failed to bridge the gap between the socially excluded dalits and the others in the society. Socially excluded dalit communities are least able to participate in developmental processes and are not considered accountable as others.
Mr. Lewis George Arsenault, Country Head, UNICEF (India), Mr. Musa Mohammed, Country Director, CARE (India) and Mr. Ashok Bharti, Chairman, NACDOR and other dignitaries have also spoke on the occasion.