IndiaPost.com - GOPIO summit puts India literacy onus on Diaspora

India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in association with IDCA, American Indian Foundation and Pratham concluded an education summit here on January 7 at FICCI auditorium. The summit provided a platform to the NRIs and PIOs who could offer mass education to their native land.

There was also an opportunity for the younger generation who otherwise are twice removed from the country. The opportunities and mechanisms were discussed at great length in the presence of Dr. Thomas Abraham, GOPIO chairman and Inder Singh, President, GOPIO International, USA. The focus was on how the Diaspora could be involved in the education sector. Lord Bhikhu Parekh of UK commented on the least participation in education shown by the country of 1.2 billion. He pointed to the absence of the culture of research in India.

He offered some possible solutions such as comprehensive plan in primary education, reasonably marked out spaces, looking at our education system and indicating what is right and what is wrong with it and exchange of teachers, students, scholarships, new educational techniques, equipping libraries etc. Also, the need of the hour seemed to be individual involvement. AMITY Chief Dr. Ashok Chauhan pointed out that our country is famous for the intelligence that the kids are bestowed with.

The lacuna is at the level of analytical research and individual initiatives. Voluntary services is the upcoming arena that is going to throw open the arenas for the needy and the ones those who were ready to help them. As CII advisor, Y.S. Rajan highlighted the availability of resources and world-class work experience with NRIs, these would also enable the Pravasi to give back to their country. Another grey area that was talked about was teacher availability and their training. Parallel education is not a solution though as working with the government, which has already done so much for the cause, is better.

Amit Kaushik of SRF Foundation rightly said, "Attitudes are changing and there is willingness to work with NGOs unlike earlier." A country that has a different culture every 200 kilometers, cannot be dealt in a "uniform fashion" or be covered in a blanket term, would be a "basket case" of a country if education was not taken up seriously says Kaushik. The next issue to be taken up by the forum was how the second-generation children could be involved in this Mass Education plan.

As Professor Rupam Saran from Manhattan College re-affirmed the desire to experience a different social system in these kids while they are constructing or re-constructing their Indian connection, it makes sense for the Diaspora to hit on this avenue further. It is their own way of giving back to their parent’s homeland. An example of this at the summit itself was that of Neal Bharadwaj, a young man who is a college student himself but is actively doing his bit with his organization called Matters of Community (MOC).

This shows the spark has already caught fire in the young blood and all we need is to facilitate such sparks to alight a fire that would bring about a sea-change in our country. The summit was concluded by taking up resolutions at this year’s annual GOPIO summit and some of them were- real estate investment, marriage abuses, rehabilitation of Gulf workers, advisory committee, public-private cooperation, RTI amongst other suggestions from the audience present.

The summit is a path that has obstacles while one walks on it, but it is also an indication that the dream of a nation that was dreamt way-back is on its way to realization. Speaking to India Post, O.P.Shah, Chairman, Centre for Peace and Progress called GOPIO. "A perfect platform for networking. According to him, the main purpose of this interactive session by GOPIO was to exchange ideas of the different countries to develop India. He said that when ideas from all over the world come, you have a wider scope of improving upon a situation. Satvasheela P.Chavan, Premalaya Health Trust said, "I have been attending the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas regularly and I have seen it growing through the years.

Today, I’m proud to be a part of PBD, as finally, PBD has achieved the right status and this year we have 120 people participating. It is good to see, people of Indian origin, settled in other countries, doing great philanthropically for India. Yogi Patel, a ‘Pratham’ US ambassador, who raises funds for the development of India, shared his own personal experience through a presentation, which displayed how he managed to get out of the vicious circle of poverty and unemployment, with the help of certain individuals who helped him.

To a question raised to him as to how he manages to balance the disparity between Hindus and Muslims, he gave a straight shot, "Our religion is children".