Gandhi centre plans ‘village swaraj’

(October 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Vowing to invigorate its community initiatives for fostering ethnic harmony, the Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Sri Lanka plans to double its efforts to empower the rural people through "village Swaraj."

"The Mahatma Gandhi centre is convinced that the Gandhian philosophy of rural democracy is more relevant today than ever before, and therefore, it is pursuing an active programme of supporting community initiatives and peoples participation as measures for empowering people and fostering inter-ethnic harmony," it said.

In its observation on the eve of Mahatma Gandhis birth anniversary, the institute said change can occur only by adopting village Swaraj that stands for the welfare of all, the centre said. What was required was "a functioning democracy based on human dignity guided by truth and non-violence," the centre said in a release. The centre observed that many countries in South Asia continue to live in abject poverty, hunger and ignorance. "Development policies tragically are focused to catch up with the developed nations, and a class of super rich has been created in those (South Asian) countries including Sri Lanka while the gap between them and the poor has increased by many folds," it said. "Although some countries have demonstrated a level of imperfect electoral democracy, none of them has true democracy," it said. - Sri Lanka Guardian