Education is key to all rights and entitlements, and at the same time it gives strength to understand the existing social prejudices and inequalities. So, a conducive platform must be provided to the children to ensure their holistic development, opined some noted persons here on Wednesday.
The issue was discussed at the State-level Children’s Meet organised here by the Dalit Adhikar Sangathan (DAS), which fights for the cause of dalits and other socially excluded groups.
School and Mass Education Secretary Usha Padhee, former MP Mohan Jena, educationist Pritish Acharya, ActionAid programme manager Ghasiram Panda and DAS convenor Kisan Pattnaik delivered their view points.
Stating that diversity, discrimination and exclusion are always there in the society, Padhee said, “We need to make our children aware of these issues so that they can confront and overcome it,”
She further said concerted efforts and networking system for implementation of the existing laws and social awareness among masses would definitely work out for the children to enjoy their rights and entitlements fully.
In the second session, the Dalit Adhikar Sangathan suggested that the Government rename schools named after castes, display messages on school boards about social discrimination issues and train teachers to wipe out discriminations from children’s mind.
Among others, ActionAid’s programme officer lopamudra Behera, Jugal Kishore Ranjit, Dr Kumud Behera and rationalist Debendra Sutar were present.