His Excellency
Mr. Alexendre Cécé Loua Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea visited the Sulabh Campus on January 19, 2016
His Excellency
Mr. Alphonsus H.M. Stoelinga,
Ambassador of the Netherlands
H
is Excellency Mr. Alphonsus H.M. Stoelinga, Ambassador of the Netherlands to India, Bhutan and Nepal on the Sulabh Campus: July 12, 2016
".......I belong to a developing country and today I know the reason why the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken the decision to build toilets all over the country. The Sulabh Technology has to be exported....."
I am very grateful to Dr. Pathak and to all of you for receving me here and, of course, to Biswas for bringing me here. I have seen here everything i.e. the school, the museum, the technologies that you developed and what you are doing here is about hygiene; it is about education and it is also about skills. But foremost it is about putting an end to scavenging and to give a future to those whose work it was. Now as far as hygiene is concerned, it is so important that children must practise hygiene, and work in a hygienic environment because if they don’t do so - for example- they get worms and they fall sick and they cannot go to school; it’s a strain on the society, its a strain on children’s future. The same is the case with separate toilets for girls. If there are no toilets for them in school, the parents don’t want to send their daughters to schools. Again this is a strain on their future. It results in a strain on the future of the country. So hygiene is must for every person. Hygiene is must a for society and hygiene is important for future of our economy. I am learning the hindi language and I can tell you: “It is better today to say to all the people of the world, ‘saff kijiye’ then to have to say tomorrow to our children ‘maff kijiye’.” So hygiene is important, education is important and what I have also seen here is skill development. The Modi Government has to create 12 million jobs per year. You contribute to giving people the skills to do these jobs. So, we also have to train people in skills, not only in academics, not only engineers, but also plumbers, carpenters, electricians. People who can work in factories, people who can repair things and a lot of skills that we have to develop and I have seen here that you are very active in this. I feel what you are doing generally here is making it possible for people to realize their potential. I daily read many Indian newspapers, and I hear speeches of people who are specialist in the matter: if India wants to transform itself it needs economic growth by 10 per cent. You are very very high at seven and a half per cent growth but in order to reach 10 per cent you need to engage all the brains, all the potential of all men and women. India has got 1.3 billion people, that means 1.3 billion brains, 1.3 billion talents. But there are people here walking around without education. We should educate them. Only if we empower them, the Indian society, the people and the economy will prosper. And you, Dr. Pathak, made a very important contribution here. I normally like to finish my speeches using Hindi words and hope you all understand Hindi, because I don’t don’t speak the other languages of India. ‘Mai sochata hun ki hamare desho ke aur logon ke sahyog se kamyabi milegi’. Thank you very much.
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