Reiterating her government’s commitment to the cause of minority welfare, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Friday promised immediate execution of the Union Cabinet’s decision to set up a number of committees recommended by the Sachar panel on the social, economic and educational conditions of Muslims. “Appropriate action is in hand on the recommendation of the Sachar Committee,” she said.
She was addressing a conference on the empowerment of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and minority communities through education. Ms Gandhi’s remarks followed the Cabinet decision to set up four committees on proposals for an equal opportunity commission, a national data bank, education and skill development and over identification of minority-dominated districts.
Referring to linguistic minorities, the Congress President said that education for such communities would require special textbooks and teachers, who should be sensitive to the language.
Admitting the poor standard of teaching in government schools, she said the government should take measures to check teacher absenteeism and organise training programmes for the teaching staff and provide them with incentives.
Ms Gandhi also argued in favour of involving the panchayats and women’s self-help groups for monitoring the quality of education in government schools.

Paradox of India
“It is a strange paradox that on one hand India is producing world-class doctors, engineers and scientists and on the other hand it has the largest number of illiterates in the world,” she said.
Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who was also present on the occasion, said the government should ensure transparency and effective implementation of the poverty-alleviation schemes as poverty reduction was related closely to the spread of literacy.
Taking a dig at the anti-reservation lobby, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh told the conference that mindsets should change to ensure equitable distribution of social and economic benefits.
He said it was a matter of concern as despite the government’s assurance that seats for the general category would not be curtailed, resistance to the implementation of OBC reservation continued.