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The Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Arjun Singh has said that if the world has to move forward, it must be on the basis of common understanding of human destiny. He was addressing the UNESCO General Assembly in Paris today. He urged that nations around the world should not be dwarfed by limitations of only technology, markets and military power.
Here is the full text of the Minister’s speech:
“It gives me great pleasure to congratulate the Chairman of the General Conference, who represents Oman, a country with which India has had historic and fraternal links. Let me also pay tribute to the outgoing Chairman, Mr. Michael Abiola Omolewa under whose chairmanship the General Conference took important decisions at its last session.
2. We meet at an important moment where the developing world faces a dual challenge of meeting rising domestic expectations and the need to secure for ourselves an international environment conducive to meeting our developmental aspirations. This is an appropriate moment to recall the UNESCO Constitution adopted on 16th November, 1945, which begins by declaring “Since wars began in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed”. In this context, we welcome the decision taken by the Asia-Pacific Group of introducing a draft resolution to this Conference to reflect on the future of UNESCO. This gives the opportunity of reaffirming UNESCO’s Constitution and our commitment to implement its key mandates in the different domain of education, science, culture and information.
3. The agenda of this General Conference gives us an opportune moment to reflect on the key challenges facing UNESO today. The continuing focus on EFA is welcome and in line with the Dakar goals. India remains firmly committed to EFA through the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ (SSA). India has emphasized the importance of compulsory elementary education while promoting secondary and higher education. Through the SSA combined with the mid-day meal scheme (MDMS), the drop out rates at the primary stage have declined substantively. What is of particular satisfaction is that there has been a substantial improvement in the drop out rates of girls. We have also imposed an educational cess of 2 per cent on major central taxes to finance elementary education. We are committed to a target of all children completing eight years of elementary school education by the year 2010. Largely as a result of this campaign, we have been able to reach an enrolment in elementary education of near 85% with some States having already reached near complete enrolment.
4. With such large illiteracy as in South Asia, there should be extra emphasis on South – South Cooperation. The concept of E-9 countries needs to be de-segregated. Out of the 9 countries, while Mexico has high Education Development Index (EDI), China, Indonesia, Egypt and Brazil have medium EDI, and only India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria have low EDI. Adequate resources need be provided for these four countries and there is a need to revamp Fast Track Initiatives.
5. We have recently put in place a National Curriculum Framework for Secondary Education, a framework which has resulted from an extensive participatory process involving teachers, subject-matter specialists, educationists and others.
6. Another area I would like to draw attention is our focus on Inclusive Education. We are committed to ensuring that no child is denied admission in mainstream education on the grounds of disability. We have similarly made progress in working with the national movement for AIDS Prevention and Control, recognizing that awareness building and empowerment is the primary task of education.
7. A satellite has been launched named EDUSAT, dedicated exclusively for education. The main mission of EDUSAT is educating the people on a continuing basis with primary focus on school, higher and professional education. A 24-hour education channel targeted at providing learning opportunities to masses across the length and breadth of the country has been launched. A number of measures have been initiated to strengthen the autonomy of the technical institutes of excellence in the country. Three of our universities i.e. Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai are completing 150 years of their existence. They are collaborating and networking to provide common syllabus and curriculum. UNESCO must facilitate the visit of eminent educationists and professionals to these institutes for strengthening research activities and capacity building.
8. Culture and the World Heritage Committee is now increasingly UNESCO’s largest and most visible flagship. Let me congratulate UNESCO for the work that is being done in nurturing and protecting the World’s cultural and natural sites. Recently, the World Heritage Committee approved the Valley of Flowers National Park as an extension to the Nanda Devi National Park and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway as an extension to the Darjeeling Himalayas Railway. We reiterate our commitment to protect our sites whether on the World Heritage List or on our own National List. We also welcome the historic decision taken at the Durban meeting to create an African World Heritage Fund. India remains strongly committed to the cause of preservation and protection of world heritage in the African Continent. It is in this spirit that India is contributing US $ 30,000/- to the African Heritage Fund.
9. The protection of heritage, tangible and intangible, has always been an important aspect of India’s commitment to UNESCO’s programmes. India has just ratified the Convention for the Protection of Intangible Heritage, paving the way for its entry into force. This will help to protect and preserve the World’s huge and fast disappearing intangible cultural heritage reserves.
10. We regret that the process towards finalizing the draft Convention on Cultural Diversity, to be adopted by this session of the General Conference, was marked by some rancour and debate. India believes that the issue of protection of cultural diversity is a fundamental mandate of UNESCO to which we are deeply committed. We believe that this draft Convention will respond to the needs of the international community and protect and nurture vulnerable traditions and cultures. We hope that it can be adopted by acclamation at this session of the General Conference.
11. Mr. Chairman, India has long emphasized that UNESCO should focus on its key mandates, including the empowerment of people through access to information and knowledge. It is in this spirit that India has put forward its initiative at this session of the General Conference on the issue of the Rights of Broadcasting Organization being in harmony with the rights of the public and other stakeholders to have access to the public domain. India’s initiative has to be seen in the broader prospective of the right to freedom of information and knowledge dissemination. UNESCO with its crosscutting mandate of communication, promotion of access to knowledge, education and ethics of science is an ideal forum for such a discussion.
12. Turning to Science, India welcomes the initiative taken by UNESCO in capacity building in the basic and engineering sciences and promoting its application for sustainable development, natural resource use, and disaster preparedness. India attaches great importance to capacity building in the basic science as it gives rise to direct inputs of scientific research into making of public policy. My colleague the Minister for Science & Technology will be making a detailed presentation later during the session on this issue at the Round Table on Basic Sciences. UNESCO can help to relate best practices elsewhere in the world to help generate innovative ideas in the field of scientific knowledge. UNESCO should also help in bringing internationally acclaimed scientists and Nobel laureates to interact with Indian research centres of repute which would help them expand their own horizon of research and also give new direction to research in our country for mutual benefit and uses. India proposes that some of our Centres of excellence in basic sciences should be upgraded into Regional Centres of Excellence for the Asia-Pacific Region for the benefit of the whole region. It is also proposed that these centres could be networked with world-class labs for advanced research and training.
13. If necessary, India could take the lead in producing material for internet based science teaching and designing a tool kit that enables any country to convert the Programme into local language for distribution to other interested developing countries free of cost.
14. India is actively participating in the activities of Inter-Governmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observation System (IOGOOS). India is setting up its own National Tsunami Warning System at Hyderabad and the key elements of the system are slated to be put in place by March 2006 and the entire national early warning system is targeted to be made operative by September 2007 after necessary testing & stimulation. India is uniquely placed in the Indian Ocean and substantial network for this system would also be in the Indian part of the Indian Ocean. A substantial and comprehensive network of in-sites observation system and satellites have been put in place by India in the Indian Ocean.
15. India has been participating actively in ‘the UNESCO’s ‘International Hydrological Programme (IHP). We note however that the focus of the IHP activities are shifting from purely scientific studies, concerning education, research and study on hydrology to cover all water related concerns especially, the water conflict resolution mechanism, trans-boundary water governance and management issues such as Integrated Water Resources Management. India is fully committed to co-operate in all IHP activities provided they are implemented within the framework of bilateral agreements, devoid of any multilateral system for governance of trans-boundary water and conflict resolution mechanism.
16. A Regional Centre for Bio-technology Training and Education in India under the auspices of UNESCO is under process and we hope that the proposal would be approved during the current General Conference. The proposed Regional Centre would help in promotion of capacity building through education and training and research and development in biotechnology through regional and international co-operation and related transfer of knowledge and technologies. It would create a pool of scientists in biotechnology to address human resources needs in the entire region.
17. As a founder member of UNESCO, India is deeply committed to UNESCO’s aims and objectives. India supports UNESCO’s ideals of world peace, human solidarity and intellectual cooperation, which is fully consonant with India’s rich intellectual and cultural heritage, its deep philosophical and spiritual roots, its long tradition of tolerance and pluralism and its vibrant democratic culture. Indeed, India has benefited in the past from UNESCO’s programmes and projects. It is now time for India to voluntarily refrain from accepting any funding under the Participation Programme of UNESCO for the biennium 2006-2007. The amount thus saved can be utilized for sanctioning and implementing projects in least developed countries (LDCs).
18. The world has been going through difficult times. If we have to move forward, it must be on the basis of a common understanding of human destiny. We will remain mired in the paradigms of the last century if we allow ourselves to be dwarfed by the trappings of only technology, markets and the military power. Human destiny cannot be led by the acquisition of more power or wealth. It can be shaped by each person, born on this earth, realising his full potential and in harmony with the larger society and the environment. All things which stratify and divide human beings, talk of destinies of particular countries and the ascendancy of some over the fate of the universe, are ideas not conducive towards a common human destiny joined in a global enterprise.
19. We can resolve all issues of difference through a multilateral approach. UNESCO has been a model of multilateral approach in the UN system. We hope that the values and approaches developed here will permeate and influence the conduct of affairs of other UN and multilateral agencies. The power play in some of these bodies defeats the very purpose of coming together of nations and peoples. We do hope that from this 60th Anniversary General Conference, a powerful message will go to the world that not only dialogue amongst civilizations must be encouraged and sustained, but that humanity consists of a common civilizational enterprise. To be worth being called a civilization, the notions of liberty, equality and fraternity clinched for the world by the French Revolution should become the basis for both national and international enterprise. It is, therefore, only appropriate that UNESCO is headquartered in Paris, the city which gave us these powerful words which continue to reverberate through the world and inspire generations of people to come together and struggle for a better future.
20. As one more child receives education, one more village gets electricity and drinking water, one more song sung in a remote village resonates through the world, the Charter of UNESCO succeeds. As one more incident of hate, obscurantism or bias takes place anywhere in the world, the Charter of UNESCO faces a challenge. I am sure we will move forward despite the very many genuine difficulties and threats to being together in these somewhat challenging times.”
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