Serious attention should be paid to uplift Indian Tamils - Chandrasekaran

Indian origin people in other countries should think seriously about uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the community, Community Development and Social Iniquity Eradication Minister P. Chandrasekaran said.

He was addressing the ninth International Conference of World Indian Origin People in Malaysia from December 14-16.

It is a historically important programme to meet and discuss with the representatives of Indian Origins living in developed countries and developing countries representing 200 million people, he said.

The organisers of this conference should be congratulated. The sense of patriotism and the high capabilities of the people who organised this conference is visible. Indian Origins have developed in their socio economic status to organise an International conference of this nature, the Minister added.

Indians migrated to South Asia, South East Asia and African countries as workers in the 19th century. After India's independence hundreds of thousands of Indian professionals and traders migrated to several countries in the 20th century. The Indian Tamils who went seeking wealth across the oceans became wealthy through their efforts and hard work.

These Indians look at their Motherlands now. They think about the backward people in their Motherland. They look at the education, health and economic status of their brothers, he said.

"They think how they could help their Motherland with the wealth they earned. "Their only thought is to upgrade the education and health status of their Motherland. We understand there are several donors among them. To achieve these high goals, they formed an organisation to transform their objectives into actions.

"We understand the Indian Government recognises their contributions, feelings and patriotism highly," he said.

About 1.5 million Indian Tamils live in Sri Lanka. Though this community has been living in Sri Lanka for more than 200 years, 70 per cent of them work and live in plantations. They live as a backward community due to the denial of rights of citizenship, franchise and other socio economic rights.

Other communities have progressed and have transformed into advanced communities. Researches indicate the gap between the Indian Tamils and others will become bigger in time to come, the minister observed.

Recent World Bank reports have indicated the poverty level of Indian Tamils has increased compared to urban and rural sectors in Sri Lanka. School education, university education, lifespan, maternity and child death rate, monthly income and housing facilities for the Indian Communities are in a backward status, he added.

"To eradicate the social inequity of this community a separate ministry has been formed in our country. Another separate ministry has been formed to provide infrastructure facilities to our community," he said.

The recent reforms have given certain political rights to this people who were political orphans for a long time without representatives in Parliament.

Ten MPs are ministers and deputy ministers.

Programmes are immediately needed to uplift this community.

Sweden, Canada, Germany and India provided some assistance for their advancement in the recent past. But still the socio economic condition of this community is backward compared to other sectors, the minister said.