AHMEDABAD: The winner of the Right Livelihood Award for social upliftment, Swami Agnivesh, on Monday announced the launch of the `Bharat Navnirman Mahaabhiyan.' It is based on a four-point common minimum programme to fight social inequality and gender inequality, including female foeticide and dowry.

Swami Agnivesh, who has worked for the elimination of bonded and child labour, said he had chosen the auspicious Vijaya Dashami day for launching the Mahaabhiyan because it signified the victory of good over evil and it was on this day that Babasaheb Ambedkar renounced Hinduism to become a Buddhist to protest against casteism.

He said he hoped to "formalise" the socio-religious cultural alliance by the end of the year by inviting religious leaders of all communities, non-governmental organisations and other like-minded people to fight against these social evils. His organisation would also encourage inter-caste and inter-religion marriages. All those who had performed such marriages and had been living together for more than five years would be publicly honoured as "social revolutionaries."

The president of the World Council of the Arya Samaj said the people would have to take up cudgels against social evils as the Government and police alone could not tackle them.

He was here to attend the fifth anniversary of Prashant, the NGO working for human rights, justice and peace. He said he chose Gujarat to announce the launch of the Mahaabhiyan because it was here that the Navnirman agitation against political corruption was launched, which encouraged Jaiprakash Narayan to replicate it in Bihar.

Denouncing the L. K. Advani-led BJP Ramrathyatra from Somnath to Ayodhya as an attempt to divide society on religious grounds, he criticised the United Progressive Alliance Government for falling short of people's expectations.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme should not only be extended to cover all the 600-odd districts in the country and guarantee at least 250 days employment a year, but the Government should also formulate a national minimum wage policy.

He also criticised the Centre for its failure to implement the 86th amendment of the Constitution passed by Parliament in 2003 declaring right to education and equal opportunities a fundamental right.

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