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CAMBRIDGE, Sept 20: The risk of a conflict in South Asia between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, social and economic divide between the haves and have nots, woeful education system, women and human rights issues dominated a conference on South Asia.
The conference (Sept 17-19) “South Asia: Bridging the Great Divide” which featured panel discussions by many South Asian scholars, economists, and politicians, was told that disputes between the arch rivals India and Pakistan continue to undermine the great economic progress in the sub-continent.
Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen in his comments said that India and Pakistan can learn from the great economic leap made by China in post 1979 period but observed that China had regressed in the area of social issues in its pursuit of economic growth.
On the question about South Asia without borders, Dr Sen felt that it cannot be viewed in isolation from Middle East and other nations in the region.
Harvard University president Lawrence Summers underscored that Kashmir issue was of great importance for the region and spoke about the issue’s strategic dimension.
Mr Summers a former US Secretary of Treasury under the Clinton administration observed that United States needs to study the South Asia conundrum in more depth and felt that the Harvard faculty was poised to become a foremost institution on South Asian studies.
In the panel discussion on Human Development and Equity: “The Subcontinent’s Common Challenges”, the speakers bemoaned the abysmal education system in India and Pakistan and stressed the need for both countries to allocate more resources to provide education to the forsaken masses.
Dr Sudhir Anand, professor of economics at Oxford, identified the endemic problems afflicting the education system in India which despite mandatory legislation’s was unable to address the illiteracy issue in the country.
However, Sudha Murthy, chairperson of Infosys systems, gave insights into how the business community and social workers could alleviate the suffering humanity by allocating their own resources to help the masses. Ms Murthy spoke about her own experiences in the Indian villages—having visited 10,000 on her own — saying the people are longing for education to better their lot. She asked the moneyed class of Indians to invest more in the field of education.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS: The panel discussing “Religion and Rights in South Asia,” took up women rights and human rights issues in the backdrop of fundamentalist forces hold over the body politics of India and Pakistan.
Margaret Alva, member of Indian parliament and chair of India’s parliamentary committee on the Empowerment of Women, in her incisive discourse said “Despite constitutional guarantees and protective legislation, the personal codes in India ensure in subtle ways, the subordination and exploitation of women in a way that puts them beyond the purview of many of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.”
Saying that religious manipulation of gender is common to all religions, Ms Alva said In India “where traditions banned by law, (such as child marriages, dowry, sati, etc.) continued to be practised because of religious sanction.”
