Education first step towards social justice: social activist

Evacuee Trust Property Board Chairman Siddique-ul-Farooq has said that faith and country are personal but humanity is common for everyone and people must be served under this philosophy. He was addressing 9th international seminar on "Ambedkar's Philosophy: Path to Social Justice in South Asia" organised by Punjab University Centre for South Asian Studies and Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation in connection with Dr Ambedkar Day here on Thursday.
Addressing the ceremony, Siddique-ul-Farooq said that there was abundance of ideas and philosophies for the betterment of society however the real issue was their implementation. He said that it was unjust to divide human beings on the basis of caste, race and region. He said that Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) practically removed all such divisions based on colour, caste etc. He said that one of the important problems being faced by South Asian countries was lack of justice otherwise people of South Asian countries were full of talent and were running institutions in the West. He said that the real problem was that South Asian countries had problems with each other.
He said that the politicians of South Asian countries should show statesmen ship to serve their nations and all the politicians should give priority to the cause of humanity. He said that there must be strong relations among philosophers, implementers and politicians. He said that PML-N government had stopped forced conversions and the rights being given to minorities were being acknowledged in India as well. He said that the promotion of education and strengthening of democracy would resolve problems of the people.
Addressing the seminar, Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the people of South Asia were facing similar problems. He said that lack of education, economic disparity and lack of justice were being faced by the people of the region. He said that we in South Asia were like all on Noah's ark and if anything happens, we all would go down together.
Indian social activist Manjula Hotilal said that according to Dr Ambedkar, freedom of mind was real freedom and freedom was proof of one's existence. She said that education was the first step towards social justice. He said that there were more than 200 million Dilats and six thousand big castes in India. She said that Indian Dilats were facing 98 forms of discriminations. She said Indian women were facing bounded labour, torture, gang rapes, forced marriages and discriminatory attitude.
Dr Parmood Kumar said that concentration of wealth was a big challenge and education was the only way that could bring change. He said that there was no need of Hitler today as our politicians were enough to play his role. Dr Anand said that Dr Ambedkar believed in liberty, equality and fraternity and did not want change through bloodshed. He said that Dr Ambedkar gave idea of state socialism and wanted social justice in society. He said that one percent people of India possessed 58.4 percent of wealth of the country. He said that Indian people were facing serious problems due to currency crisis and it was termed as economic non-sense. Later, shields were distributed among the guests.