New Delhi [India], June 16 : Delhi Education Minister Atishi said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has brought about a major shift in the politics of India and now parties across the country have education and health on top of their agenda.
While addressing the conference at Cambridge University on Thursday, Atishi said, "In the past 75 years, it is for the first time in the democratic history of India that politics is being done on governance and parties across the country have education and health as their top agenda. This major shift in the politics of India has been brought about by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with his exemplary work over the past 8 years."
Atishi was speaking on the topic 'Education- Building India's Future at 100' at the conference in Cambridge.
She said that it is really concerning that it took 75 years of independence to discuss politics on the basic
"It has taken so many years for governments to prioritize education and healthcare. In the past 75 years, we have not had a single political party that claimed to transform the education system of the country and provide quality education to every child, regardless of their background," Atishi said.
Atishi mentioned that when she was in school 25 years ago, India was placed in the second category as a developing country.
"The narrative at the time was that India would become a developed country by 2020. However, despite the narrative of the country's growing economy, India still carries the tag of a "developing country," she said.
She pointed out that although we are often told that India's GDP has crossed the $3.5 trillion mark and it is the fastest-growing G20 economy, "the reality is more worrying and requires immediate attention."
"One key indicator of the country's situation is the Human Development Index, where India ranks 132 out of 191 countries. Several smaller countries or countries considered comparable to India, such as Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, have higher ranks in this index," she said.
It is often highlighted that India has the largest number of growing billionaires, with the number increasing from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022. However, another figure during this period is the number of hungry people in the country, which grew from 19 crores to 35 crores. This is alarming considering that India is the second-largest producer of food in the world. Despite this, it has the largest number of malnourished or undernourished people, she added.
Education Minister Atishi further mentioned that there is a narrative of a growing and shining India but there is also the reality that 140 crores of people in this country do not have access to education, healthcare, nutrition, or employment.
"The richest 1 pc of the country owns 40 pc of India's wealth, while the bottom 50 pc of the population owns only 3 pc. Thus, while the GDP may be growing, it is primarily benefiting the richest, while the majority of the population suffers. This has led to situations where people have to choose between saving a family member's life through treatment or their last available asset," she said.
Speaking about what the Delhi government did differently under the leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi said, "In the past few years, there has been a shift in the narrative due to CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is an engineer by profession and aspired to change the way politics is conducted in the country."
Atishi further said that at this point, the country has two models. The first model, which the AAP has presented for the past 8 years, aims to empower every citizen of the state by giving them access to education and enabling them to solve the country's problems.
"The second model is that of the party in power in the central government, which is resorting to various means to imprison opposition leaders through agencies like CBI and ED, engaging in the sale-purchase of MLAs, and introducing ordinances that undermine the power of elected governments," she added.
She also mentioned that education and politics are closely linked to each other.
"I would like to say that politics and education are closely linked to each other. I believe the reason why our children have not been able to receive a quality education in the past 75 years is that education has never been at the centre stage of politics," she said.
During her address at Cambridge, she also shared that Punjab is now following the Delhi Education Model and very soon the results of the same will be visible to the world.
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