|
The Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Somnath Chatterjee has called for an inclusive education system so that no section of society is left out of the literacy campaign and should generate productive employment. He was speaking after giving away Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Literacy Awards-2004 for promoting education amongst the educationally backward minorities here today. Shri Chatterjee said particular emphasis of educational programmes should be on backward areas. He said that rural areas should be made focal point of literacy endeavours. Describing Maulana Azad as a great protagonist of Hindu Muslim unity, Shri Chatterjee said he was instrumental in establishing a secular and socialist India. He said that our education system should strengthen our secular fabric.
Facilitating the awardees, the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Smt. Meira Kumar announced an increase in the corpus of Maulana Azad Education Foundation from Rs. 70 crore to Rs.100 crore. This, she said, will generate more income to the Foundation to expand its activities. She said the Foundation has so far provided financial assistance worth Rs. 80.53 crore to 622 NGOs. This year the Foundation is assisting 102 NGOs, thus crossing the 100 mark in a year for the first time. The Minister said that the number of scholarships for meritorious girl students belonging to minorities has been increased from 1200 to 3000. In view of special situation prevailing in Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir, additional 400 and 260 scholarships have been provided to these states respectively. Smt. Kumar said that in order to fulfil the commitment made in the NCMP, her Ministry has proposed to the government a 15 Point Programme for the welfare of minorities.
The speaker gave away Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Literacy Award 2004 to Farook College, Calicut (Kerala), Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society, Pune (Maharashtra) and Marwar Muslim Educational Society, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) for promoting education among the educationally backward minorities. Each Award carries an amount of Rs. 1 lakh and a citation.
Farook College, Calicut is the biggest post graduate residential college in the country. It imparts instruction in various disciplines at the under graduate and post graduate level including Arabic, English, Zoology, Statistics and Chemistry. Its 7 hostels accommodate nearly 1100 students including 700 girls.
Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society, Pune has set up 19 educational institutes right from pre-primary to graduate and post-graduate levels. These institutions are imparting education in the fields of science, commerce, arts, computer science, law pharmacy, management science and dentistry to about 15, 000 students belonging to Muslim community.
Marwar Muslim Educational Society, Jodhpur is one of the oldest institutions imparting education from nursery to 12th class to about 2000 students including 660 girls. The society is selflessly working for the cause of girls education, which has increased percentage of literacy among girls of minority.
MLD:RK:sje-64 (21.3)
|
