The Hindu : Front Page : Tibet’s development spells progress in human rights: N. Ram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Tibet’s development spells progress in human rights: N. Ram

BEIJING: Tibet’s all-round development over some years has raised the living standards of its people, which by itself constituted progress in human rights, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said here on Tuesday.

People’s welfare and quality of life are indices to measure human rights too, he said in a lecture at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights.

Mr. Ram, who has visited Tibet twice in the past seven years and written about his visits, said the villages he had visited provided vivid proof of the region’s economic development.

He said the per capita net income of the Tibetan people had maintained double-digit growth in each of the past five years, and stood at 2,788 yuan ($398) last year.

Mr. Ram said he was quite impressed by the farmers there who had become rich through hard work, and with the aid of central government subsidies and new opportunities provided by the construction boom. The central government’s preferential policy has enabled some 14,000 Tibetan students to get better education in high schools and colleges throughout the country. Mr. Ram added that it was a good example for India to follow.

With the aid of the newly-opened Qinghai-Tibet railway, Tibet’s foreign trade volume last year reached $393 million, and revenues from tourism reached 4.8 billion yuan, he said.

He observed that the railway line may have had some negative impact on the region’s environment and wildlife, but that some accounts on this aspect were exaggerated. Besides, the central government was working for the protection of the region’s environment with an allocation of 1.5 billion yuan. The money was intended to be used for garbage and sewage treatment and to build 33 special passages for Tibetan antelopes and other wild animals, he said. — Xinhua

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page