'Provide jobs to mariganilsed society sections'

New Delhi, Apr 23: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today called for a shift in governments' focus from social safety nets to providing jobs to marginalised sections of society as part of the efforts to deal the problem of ensuring equity and population stabilisation.

The new strategies to achieve sustainable and equitable human development and empowerment in Asia ''require us to think beyond providing social safetynets and to focus directly on providing jobs and raising the incomes of the marginalised sections of society,'' Mr Chatterjee said.

He made the suggestion in his inaugural address at the 22nd Asian Parliamentary Meeting on Population and Development.

The remarks assume significance in the light of the ongoing government's efforts to introduce the job quota system in the private sector.

In order to make any policy a success and action programme more purposeful, ''we will have to involve the people in the policy processes and encourage their participation at all levels.'' In this context, it was essential that the Parliamentarians must actively involve themselves in the task, by seeking appropriate allocation and investment of financial resources for the purpose, he said.

Advotating universal education with special emphasis on girls' education, the Speaker said ''we have to come to grips with this problem of population. It does not become some kind of a theoretical concept. We have to plan in terms of food, clothing, housing, education, health, work etc., and we realise that some kind of limitation of the rapidly growing population becomes an urgent matter for us.''

UNI