INDO-DUTCH COOPERATION
IN EDUCATION, WOMEN DEVELOPMENT TO RISE
India and the Netherlands are to
increase their cooperation in education and women’s development.
While the Dutch are keen to help India in the ambitious literacy
drive under the Sarva Shiksha Abiyan and the internationally
acclaimed Mahila Samakhya programme for women’s development,
they would also like institution – to – institution cooperation
for mutual benefit.
A Dutch delegation comprising Minister
for Foreign Trade, Mr. Joop Wijn, Development Cooperation Minister,
Mrs Agnes Van Ardenne, and officials from institutions and trade,
today called on the Human Resource Minister, Dr Murli Manohar
Joshi and showed interest in participating in the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan. While welcoming the gesture, Dr. Joshi stressed that
any international participant in the programme would have to keep
India’s specific requirements in mind. The Minister also emphasised
that care will have to be taken by foreign countries to see that
the programme objectives were not distorted and there was no leakage
of funds. He affirmed that India was committed to achieve the
global ‘education for all’ goal by 2010, five years ahead of the
global target date, even without foreign assistance.
The visiting dignitaries informed
that their institutions have had fruitful exchanges with the Indian
Institute for Science and the IIT, Delhi and would like to extend
academic and research cooperation in other areas and institutes,
for mutual benefit. They also showed interest in training and
technology exchange.
India and the Netherlands have a
continuing Cultural Exchange Programme which seeks to enhance
cooperation between the two countries in education and culture.
A cultural programme to commemorate four centuries of Indo-Dutch
relations, ‘400 years of Indo-Dutch Partnership – sharing the
future in the year 2002’ is being organised in both the countries.
The importance of cooperation in the area of human resource is
evident from the fact that there are about 15,000 persons of Indian
origin residing in the Netherlands.
