Equality in society needed to ensure peace & harmony: Heptulla

Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla today exhorted on promoting equality in the society to ensure peace and harmony and job creation to stop the youths from going the wrong path.
Underlining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message of for 'sab ka saath sab ka vikas', she said unless the Muslim youths are provided jobs and the minorities are given their basic rights, peace would remain elusive.
"If there is no equality in the society, how can peace prevail and till they don't have peace in the society we cannot develop as a nation," she said at a function here.
She said the priority of her ministry is education, skill development and job creation. "If we do not give youth the skills and jobs, they will go the wrong path", she added.

Espousing the cause of girls education in the minority community, she said that of the 86 lakh scholarships awarded by her ministry annually, 46 per cent are awarded to the girls.
"My ministry will leave no stone unturned in realising our government's objective of 'sabke saath, sabka vikas', as forcefully articulated by the Prime Minister," she said.
She also voiced her concern over the increased use of 'war toys' by children, saying "when we give our children war toys and now war games on computer they are unwittingly being encouraged to internalise a sense of war and violence from childhood itself.

"We must promote symbols of peace as the tools of entertainment and for engaging the minds of the young children," she said.