The Hindu : Kerala News : Need to educate girls stressed

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Sunday, May 13, 2007
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Kerala

Need to educate girls stressed

Staff Reporter

`Muslims failed to give attention to education of girls in the community'

KOZHIKODE: Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Chairman, National Commission for Minorities, has said that Muslims in the country have failed to give attention to the education of girls of the community.

Inaugurating a discussion on `Sachar Committee recommendations and hopes' organised as part of the State conference of the Muslim Youth League (MYL) here on Saturday, Mr. Ansari said girl's education was important as girls\women constitute half of the community.

Education should be the first priority that should come to the mind when one was thinking of how quickly and effectively the issues raised by the Sachar Committee could be addressed. Unless the Muslim community thought about this, it could not solve the problem, he said. After education, the problem of employment, employment facility, technical facility, credit and bank policies had to be taken care of. The issue of credit was important as half of the Muslim population opted for self-employment. Equally important was the creation of social infrastructure. Only when the Muslim was prosperous and happier, the whole country would become prosperous, he said.

While referring to the need for making education the first priority, Mr. Ansari said the formula one could apply in States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh could not be true to Kerala.

When the Government appointed the Sachar Committee, what it had in mind was to have authentic information based on which it could frame policies. The Committee tested the facts in the Census and National Sample Survey. "The report is as good as UN report or World Bank report," he said.

When the report was submitted there were divergent views on it.

One set of people, all of them Muslims, said there would be no problem from now on as if the "report was a magic stick." Another set said it was false.

A third set of people, who were not small in number, were embarrassed by the report. They wondered what the country was doing all these years.

The fourth set of people were those who thought whether this report would create votes or lead to loss of votes, Mr. Ansari said.

Implementation

He said the expectation in New Delhi was that the Government would come out with practical programmes in the coming weeks to implement the Sachar Committee report. But the challenge would be how quickly and effectively the issues raised by the report could be addressed, he said.

C.K. Subair, State treasurer, MYL presided over the programme. E.T. Mohammed Basheer, former Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty and Abdus Samad Samadhani, MP, were among those who spoke on the occasion.

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