Experts call for treating basic education, healthcare as universal rights

Kolkata, Oct 31 (PTI) Eminent educationists and experts have called for treating basic education and healthcare as universal rights, not commodified services, stressing the need for stronger public systems to counter inequality and the growing impact of climate change.

At a seminar christened ‘Education and Health for All: Promises and Challenges’, jointly organised by the Pratichi Trust and Climate24, academics, doctors and researchers deliberated on the challenges faced by India’s health and education sectors, “amid policy stagnation, commercial interests and social disparities”.

Eminent academic Pabitra Sarkar questioned the notion of literacy, contending that “illiterate and uneducated are not synonymous”.

He said that earlier generations, though often illiterate, possessed a strong “qualitative education” in social conduct, in contrast with “today’s decline in civic and moral values”.

Sarkar expressed concern over some schools in West Bengal having no students, falling college enrolments and waning interest in basic sciences, calling for education rooted in “scientific temper and nation-building”.

Veteran educationist Bhaskar Gupta advocated reviving the Kothari Commission’s neighbourhood school model, which envisions one compulsory public school per locality and greater public spending on education.

Subhra Das and Sabir Ahamed of the Pratichi Trust presented its micro-solar training programme as a model linking education to sustainable development.

Eminent physician and CPI(M) leader Fuad Halim highlighted climate change’s health effects, noting rising night temperatures may be speeding up dengue mosquito life cycles, while warmer climates and salinisation in coastal cities pose severe health risks. PTI SUS RBT