Headline: Pull youth out of superstitious belief: Shantaram Naik
The goan network
Panaji
MP Shantaram Naik while addressing at a conference of members of Asian Forum Of Parliamentarians On Population And Development on the subject of Youth Participation as Engines of Growth in Bangkok said that, if the youth of Asian countries have to be involved in the development, they have be brought out of clutches of superstitious beliefs where youth of Asian and many other countries in the world, are ridden with.
Naik said that superstitious beliefs cannot take a country forward, but unfortunately political parties do not take up these issues for the fear of facing electoral set backs and hence they prefer to leave such issues to be resolved by non government of organisations.
Mr Naik appreciated the policies of Government of Thailand who have passed a legislation in their country called The Youth Development Act of 2007 which enshrines the right of young people to basic education , health care, play and participation in cultural and social life. Their Youth Development Plan for 2012-2016 was framed in accordance with the policy and spirit of the act. It's vision is that young people lead secured healthy , happy and creative lives , and that, their plan includes 17 indicators, such as a requirement that 80 p.c youth councils should function in a standardised way.
Mr Naik proudly mentioned that it is late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India ,who gave constitutional rights to boys girls of 18 and above to vote that if a girl of 18 can bear children and bring them up to be good citizens, cannot the girls of this age walk a mile to cast their votes.
CAPTION: P. J. Kurien, Vice-Chairman of Rajya Sabha and President of AFPPD, Avinash Khanna, Chief Whip BJP, Shantaram Naik, MP (Congress), V. P. Singh (BJP), Sudharani (Telugu Desam) and others at the conference.
