The Hindu : New Delhi News : Children pledge to fight against poverty

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Tuesday, Oct 17, 2006
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Children pledge to fight against poverty

Staff Reporter

"It is important for us to make our voices louder"

NEW DELHI: Bringing together young voices from all over the country to fight against poverty, "Wada Na Todo Abhiyan" -- a coalition of different organisations -- organised a meeting here on Monday to remind the Government to fulfil its promise of spending 6 per cent of India's GDP towards education.

"We believe the Government should spend 3 per cent of the GDP on health and 6 per cent on education. At the moment, we spend 1 per cent on health. We want to claim that this 9 per cent is ours. The campaign was started two years ago. We took the name from the first speech of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Red Fort, where he said that he would not promise anything new but try and keep old promises,'' said Amitabh Behar, convenor of Wada Na Toda Abhiyan.

With Tuesday being World Anti-Poverty Day, the organisers hope that getting the voices of the "future" involved will go a long way in ensuring that poverty is indeed reduced to mere history as the posters at the venue demanded.

"It is important for us to make our voices louder. We are demanding that 6 per cent of the GDP be spent on education only because all the countries that have managed to get literate have done the same,'' pointed out activist Vinod Raina.

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