By Jose Kalapura

Patna: Education is one of the most powerful means to achieve development. Excluding any section of society from it is a terrible deprivation, says a leading academician in Bihar.

The most excluded in Bihar Society are Dalits, tribals, some backward communities, Vinay Kantha, retired professor of Patna University and vice-president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties told a national seminar in Patna.

Kantha was the key note speech of the March 17 seminar organized by Xavier Institute of Social Research, Patna.

Some 120 people representing several organizations in Bihar such as Bihar Dalit Vikas Samiti, Naari Gunjan, attended the seminar on “Education of the Marginalized Communities in Bihar: Exploring Financial Inclusion” held at the Conference Hall at Bihar Dalit Vikas Samiti.

“Within the marginalized members in society, women are the most affected,” Kantha said.

“Marginalization of these members in social, economic, religious fields has been there in Indian society for centuries. We carry on that bane in our present times and so we do not leave an equitable society in future,” he regretted.

The government and other stake holders for governance and development must take urgent step to include these communities, he asserted.

Sister Sudha Varghese, the chief guest, shared her 31 years of experience in working for the development of Musahar women. The member of the Sisters of the Notre Dame urged the participants to fight for their rights.

Often the civil authorities do not do their job, so you must not sit idle, but pursue with determination to get your rights, she told them.

It is one thing to have government plans and programs in paper. Implementation has failed the Dalits, added the nun who was chosen as the “Women of the Year” by Vanita (woman), India’s largest weekly.

Whether Dalit or non-Dalit all communities discriminated against women, she noted. Unless women in society are determined to educate their female children, society will not develop, she added.