What Aamir thinks ... :)

Education, law and order, judiciary need sharper focus

This is one guest editor of ETwho takes his role way beyond the newsroom. After donning the editor's hat for an entire weekend, kicking off ET’s pre-budget Budgee roadshow, and writing some insightful stories on the state of cinema in India as well as across the border, Aamir Khan now puts together his Budget suggestions to the finance minister. And as can only be expected from the versatile actor, the role he picks isn't the expected entertainment professional, but a very concerned citizen.

THERE are three sectors which I feel we need to give a lot more value to and which certainly need a lot more of our attention. Education, law and order and the judiciary — three basic pillars on which any good society is built and sustained. And when I say value, I mean in every way, including economic.
School education right up to the 10th grade, is where my emphasis for education would lie. For a good quality education across a country likes ours, a lot more money needs to be pumped into the infrastructure, which includes research and development for a modern, far-seeing and holistic method of education. Also, an emphasis on training programmes for educators and of course, a higher pay scale for teachers.
The other two pillars — law and order and the judiciary — are interlinked to some extent. Here again, infrastructure needs to be strengthened. During my research for ‘Sarfarosh’, I discovered to my horror that a lot of police stations were not even adequately funded with money for basics like petrol, stationery and equipment. In such a scenario, how can we expect our police force to function properly? The security, law and order and justice of any society are of prime importance. And this can come about only when the people responsible for law and order and justice are given value and pay scales which ensure that they can lead dignified lives without finding it necessary to succumb to corruption. This includes from top to bottom, policemen, IPS officers, IAS officers, Customs officials, magistrates and judges.

A A M I R K H A N