Dharwad: Tushar Arun Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and Chairman, Australian-Indian Rural Development Foundation, lamented over the system’s failure in providing basic facilities to the people even after seven decades of achieving the freedom of our nation.

Delivering a Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation Lecture on “Gandhian Thought for the New Generation”, at Karnataka University here on Monday, Tushar Gandhi said, “Although primary education was made compulsory after achieving independence, about 70 percent of girl students remain away from high school education; the menace of open defecation has not been stopped so far and such situations of imbalanced development affect the lives of people, giving rise to social problems like naxalism.”

Instead of worshiping Mahatma as a saint, people must imbibe at least a single feature of his lifestyle to change themselves and to change the society, he said.

Besides cleaning toilet in Sabarmati Ashram Gandhiji used to produce eco-friendly biogas but no government noticed it, he lamented. “Through education we must bring positive change in the lives of poor. According to Gandhiji, education meant the universal understanding, which has been limited to remembrance of particular subject nowadays, he opined.

KUD Vice Chancellor Prof. Pramod B Gai presided over.

Registrars Prof. M N Joshi (Administration), Prof. Nijalingappa Mattihal (Evaluation), KUD Gandhi Study Centre head Dr. Shivanand Shettar and others were present.