For more diverse pursuits
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 27 2011 -

For the well being and progress of a nation, besides the material wealth, the importance of human wealth or human resources is being acknowledged more and more in contemporary era.

In earlier times, those at the helm of affairs, who wielded power, were concerned mainly with exploiting the natural and human resources to maximize their physical wealth and lead a prosperous and luxuriant life.

But as human society evolved, the blatant exploitation of man by man was no longer considered acceptable or politically correct. This is not to say that exploitation of man by man has disappeared from the face of the earth. It still exists, maybe in much higher degree but the manner of it has become more subtle.

That apart, the point we are trying to make is that there is a genuine acceptance of the need to develop human resources for a healthy society, a healthy nation among social scientists, policy makers, and many right thinking persons.

However well endowed a nation is with natural resources, if its human resources are not developed and allowed to flower, it would not be able to make optimum use of these natural resources and more importantly, the society would have to face many undesirable ill effects of not having paid enough attention to its human resources.

Social strife, crimes, drugs and substance abuse, violence etc can all be linked to this lack of proper attention to the development of the youth, the most valuable of all resources.

Work in this direction should start from the very beginning; in fact right from the time a child is in the womb by taking care of the health and other needs of the expectant mother.

A safe and healthy birth, taking care of the needs of the growing up child in terms of nutrients and food supplements, access to medical care, facilities for socialization with peers in the form of crèche or anganwadis, all these should be the responsibility of the state in close association and cooperation of the society.

Then comes the responsibility of providing quality education through school years, graduation and beyond. Now there are a lot of centrally sponsored programme like ICDS, Mid Day Meal, the SSA, RMSA Schemes which should take care of the needs of a growing up child including free education till the age of 14.

If these programmes are implemented with some degree of sincerity, the first step towards nurturing human resources of this state would have been taken. But unfortunately, this is not the case with all sorts of leakages and diversion of funds taking place.

It does not need to be emphasized here that proper implementation of these programmes will go a long way in enriching the base of human resources of the state. Our society, in a way, has a very healthy attitude towards educating children, every parent, whatever their economic condition, tries his or her level best to educate their children.

The urban middle class specially attaches a lot of importance to a good education for their children, in fact obsessively so. For them a good education for their children is the gateway to economic security, position and status in society. But this obsession with the end result of education is becoming problematic in Manipur.

On the one hand, this has put a lot of unnecessary pressure on the young minds and on the other, it has led to limiting the potential of the individual by forcing him or her to chose a certain kind of education which in many cases runs contrary to the interest and the affinity of the individual in question.

We are specifically talking about the obsession of parents for engineering and medicine. There is no denying that these are important areas of study and vital professions but a society also needs its members to shine in many other different and diverse fields.

Side by side with doctors and engineers, our society also needs goods teachers, administrators, scientists, intellectuals, artists, sportspersons, filmmakers, musicians etc.

Only when we have individuals shining in all areas of human endevour will we become a vibrant society. Our society should encourage children to pursue and shine in their areas of interest and not restrict them to our notion of what is best for them.

This will not only help the individual to blossom but would also help the society in the long run.

A society with individuals proficient in different and diverse areas, complementing each other would pulsate with life and energy like a multi-hued garden.