After a gap of thirty years, the annual conference of the Akhil Bharatiya Satyashodak Samaj (ABSS) will be held in the city. The 39th annual conference of the organisation, which was founded by Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, will be held at Rashtriya Majdoor Mill Sangh in Bhoiwada on March 4 and 5.
The conference, which will be inaugurated by Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, will address issues such as the state of the education system, increasing unemployment among youths, and farmer deaths.
Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, senior journalists P. Sainath and Rahi Bhide, Dalit activist and author Arjun Dangle and CPI leader Vishwas Utagi will be among those attending the conference.
S.V Jadhav, chief organiser of the conference, at a press conference on Tuesday, said, “Mumbai is very close to our heart. When Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule started this society, their primary goal was to spread awareness by having a dialogue on social issues. The annual sessions were started to spread awareness at a larger scale. The first nine sessions were conducted in Mumbai and it gives me immense pleasure to bring it back to the city after almost thirty years.”
He added, “We have come a full circle. When Mahatma Phule started this tradition, he wanted to spread awareness of the importance of education. He addressed the flaws that prevailed in the education system then, which is also the need of the hour today. The flaws in our education system seem irreparable but we need to spread awareness about it.”
Mr. Dangle, who was present at the press conference, hit out at the ruling government. He said the government was fooling the poor and the uneducated by making tall promises and not fulfilling them. He said, “We stand strongly against the government and the ideology of the RSS.”
