INTRODUCTORY
1.1.0 One of the basic strategies of development under the 7th Five Year Plan has been Human Resource Development. National Policy on Education, 1986 has concluded by saying :
"The main task is to strengthen the base of the pyramid, which might come close to a billion people at the turn of the century. Equally, it is important to ensure that those at the top of the pyramid are among the best in the world. Our cultural well-springs had taken good care of both ends in the past; the skew set in with foreign domination and influence. It should now be possible to further intensify the nationwide effort in Human Resource Development, with Education playing its multi-faceted role."
1.2.0 The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in its report on the state of the world children in 1989, has come to the findings that in several developing countries of the world, investments on Human Resource has drastically come down; that spending per head on Education has fallen by nearly 50% due to cut backs on public expenditure; that State intervention in support of Human Resource Development programmes should be placed high on the agenda and that a real development pact, "a new Marshall Plan", should be brought under implementation under which advanced nations would significantly enhance access to real resources for the developing countries, these countries, on their part, committing themselves for a re-orientation of their investment strategies towards the pattern of real development which unequivocally puts the poor first.
1.3.0 Human Resource Development calls for coordinated and all-round efforts for the development of human potential in the areas of Education, the youth, women and children, Arts, Culture and Sports.
1.4.0 Presented, in the following five parts of the report, is a picture of the performance of the Ministry of Human Resource Development on various fronts:
Part I - Department of Education
Part II - Department of Culture
Part III - Department of Arts
Part IV - Department of Women
and Child Development
Part V - Department of Youth
Affairs & Sports
1.5.1 In implementing the various programmes under the National Policy on Education, 1986, keeping the Human Resource Development concerns in view, the following areas were given special attention -
* Universalisation of Elementary Education;
* Adult literacy including for skill development and inculcation of values;
* Access to education for the disadvantaged sections - Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, educational- ly backward, minorities and women;
* Improvements in content and process of education.
1.5.2 Three important strategies followed in giving special attention to the above areas were provision of access to education outside the formal system (either through Non-Formal Education Centres or through Distance Education); use of the existing education infrastructure for the benefit of the rural poor-for manpower development, transfer of technologies etc. like under the scheme of Community Polytechnics and mass mobilisation for educational efforts (for adult literacy - for example, by utilising the services of College students, NCC cadets, NSS volunteers, ex-
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servicemen etc.).
1.6.0 The Department of Culture continued its efforts for the preservation, promotion and enrichment of the cultural traditions of the country through its infrastructure of Zonal Cultural Centres and supportive institutions. Conclusion of festivals of USSR and France in India, commencement of the Festival of India in Japan and APNA UTSAV in Bombay have been the highlights of the current year in the area of cultural, dissemination abroad and at home. Cultural Exchange programmes with 56 countries and agreements with 75 countries are under implementation too, bringing the peoples of various countries of the world closer to the people of India.
1.7.0 The Department of Arts has nearly completed its task of setting up the infrastructural facilities for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA). The five principal divisions of the IGNCA, Kala Nidhi, Kala Kosa, Janapada Sampada, Kala Darsana and Sutradhara facilitated the nucleation of the various academic programmes of the Centre. The principal activities envisaged under the Centre are :
* Creation of a computerised National Information System and Data Bank, on Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage with supportive facilities, library, archives, etc.
* Fundamental research through programmes for production of lexicons on arts and crafts, texts of Indian Arts, reprints of writings, multi-volume encyclopaedia of Indian Arts etc.
* Documentation of folk and tribal arts and crafts; and
* Conduct of inter-disciplinary seminars.
1.8.0 A National Perspective Plan (NPP) - 1988-2000 A.D. has been finalised as a base for future strategies - so as to bring about major thrusts in the programme for women's development, particularly to raise the social and economic status of women.-The Department of Women and Child Development continued its priority concentration in rendering early childhood services. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) was expanded to cover nearly 2000 projects during the year - for the benefit of children in the age group of 0-6 and expectant and nursing mothers.
1.9.0 A National Policy on Youth (NPY) was placed before the Parliament in November, 1988 after extensive nation-wide consultations. The Policy envisages creation of opportunities for the development of the personality and functional capability of the youth of the country. Massive national integration camps held in different parts of the country have kept the value of national integration foremost in the minds of the youth. The Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sangathan has come to diversify its activities. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is focussing on the training of sports-persons for Asian Games scheduled to be held at Beijing in 1990. Adventure programmes like participation in International Ski expepdition to the South Pole, Talent Search by the Sports Authority of India, provision of infrastructure facilities for sports activities, initiation of the Sports Project Development Area (SPDA) scheme have been the other highlights of the activities of the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports. The Government of India have also sought to involve itself in greater measure with sports by introducing, in the Rajya Sabha, the Constitution (Sixty first) Amendment Bill, 1988, seeking transfer of "sports" from the State List to the Concurrent List in the Constitution of India.
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