INTRODUCTORY
 

There has been an increasing awareness that the people of the country should be looked upon as its valuable resource-indeed the most valuable resource-and that our growth process should be based on the integrated development of the citizen, beginning with childhood and going right through life, It is increasingly realised that all relevant instruments and agencies contributing to or responsible for, this growth should be integrated in order to ensure all-round development. A wider approach needs, therefore, to be adopted in which science and technology, arts and crafts, humanities and human values should all be woven into a comprehensive pattern of develop- ment. In pursuance of this idea, a new Ministry was created under a suggestive name, Ministry of Human Resource Development, on 26 Septem- ber, 1985, through 174th Amendment to the Government of India (Alloca- tion of Business ) Rules 1961. The new Ministry of Human Resource Development constituted by this amendment, has five Department's namely, Department of Education, Department of Culture, Department of Arts, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, and Department of Women's Wel- fare. The conceptual framework of this Ministry of Human Resource Development consists in building up the all-round personality of human beings and to this end, integrating under one as many relevant activities as possible, with a view to evolving a package of inputs. The process is not merely one of co-ordination but real integration, so that all components are woven into a single, continuous, harmonious programme. This process has just started, and initial steps have been taken. The report of the Ministry that has been brought out in five parts covers an account of activities regard- ing the items and subjects allotted to each of the Departments.

A special activity of the Ministry during the year was to strengthen and re-orient activities relating to education, culture, arts sports, youth welfare, women and children, towards an integrated approach so as to provide to the Ministry a sharper thrust for human resource development.

The process of formulating a new educational policy began last year. This process, however, became intensified during the course of the year. The draft policy is expected to be presented to the Parliament towards the end of the Budget Session 1986.

Dissemination of culture at the grassroot level being the main thrust of the activities of the Department of Culture, steps were taken by the Department of Culture for setting up seven Zonal Cultural Centres in different regions of the country. Three of these Zonal Centres one each at Patiala (Northern Zone), Santiniketan (Eastern Zone), and Thanjavur (Southern Zone) were inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 6th November, 1985, 5th December, 1985 and 31st January, 1986, respectively. The main objec- tive of these Centres is to emphasize cultural linkages that extend beyond territorial and linguistic boundaries.

Under the policy of promoting wider appreciation and international inter- action of our, culture, two Festivals of India were organized during the year, one, in the USA and the other in France, which won profuse acclaim in art circles and also from the common citizens.

Another important activity of the Department of Culture during the year was to hold the first South Asian Archaeological Congress in New Delhi from January 13-20, 1986 under the banner of SAARC in which dele- gates from all SAARC countries except Maldives participated.

During the year, the work relating to Certification of Films for Public Exhibition was transferred from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to the Department of Culture.

i

The Department of Arts was created solely for undertaking the diverse programmes of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts at the level of research, publication, training, creative activities and projections encompas- sing all arts, especially in their dimension of mutual inter-dependence within the natural human environment as an intrinsic part of life styles. at A levels of society and regions. The IGNCA will serve as a major resource centre for the arts and is an important ingredient in the, activities of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Through its activities the IGNCA will catalyze an integrated perception of the Indian tradition in art and culture, stimulate awareness of and sensitivity to the precious heritage, and refine perception and understanding of the heritage. It thus aims at regenerating widespread appreciation of the depth and range of Indian tradition. A National Data Bank with a computerised storage and retrival system on arts, humanities and cultural heritage is a core programme, of the IGNCA which would be accessible to scholars, academics, artists, school and college students and to laymen.

All round development of women and children constitutes an important component of the country's human resource development. Hence these two target groups deserve special treatment in addition to their legitimate share from the general developmental programmes. In order to revitalise the existing programmes for women and children, the governmental machinery at the national level was geared up and a separate Department of Women's. Welfare was set up under the newly created Ministry of Human Resource Development. This Department is charged with the responsibility of func- tioning as the nodal agency to guide, coordinate and review the efforts in this area, both Governmental and non-Governmental.

The major thrust of the programme of this Department is to ensure a state of well-being for women and children, particularly those of the weaker sections of the society through integrated services. The programmes of integrated child development services is the basic support to human resource development. It aims to provide a package of early childhood services of non-formal pre-school education, health and nutrition, culminating in reduction in wastage and stagnation, school drop-out, infant mortality, disablement and malnutrition. Similarly, the programmes for women like socio-economic programmes, training-cum-employment programmes, con- densed courses of education for adult women, etc., endeavour not only to provide economic independence to women but also to raise their quality of life.

Important among the major activities of the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports were the formulation of new schemes and expansion of the existing schemes for promotion of sports in the implementation of the National Sports Policy as a part of the Seventh Five-Year Plan. For under- taking these initiatives, the outlays for the Seventh Five-Year Plan for sports and games have been raised several times as compared to similar outlays for the Sixth Five-Year Plan. It is hoped that the increased activities will lead to broad-basing of participation in sports and games, improvement in the sports standards and generally contribute towards health fitness and strength of the nation. Greater emphasis was laid on the improvement of personality and skills of young people in programmes meant for the youth and new initiatives taken as part of the Seventh Five-Year Plan. The year of the Youth was celebrated in a befitting manner. The designation of a National Youth Day and Week and announcement of a National Youth Emblem were the durable gains of this endeavour.

The activities and achievements of the Department of Education are reported in the pages that follow.