A/HRC/8/26 Page 14 68. Tunisia commended India on its report, also as an example of the degree of pluralism and respect for diversity which pervades in the political and social life of the country. Tunisia noted India’s engagement to further advance the rights of women and vulnerable groups. It encouraged India to continue its efforts to allow for a harmonious life in a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society and to guarantee a society constituting one fifth of the world’s population to be well fed, well housed, well cared for and well educated. 69. Israel highlighted the importance of institutionalizing principles like freedom of expression in the world’s most populous democracy and took note of the information provided by the state report in this regard. It mentioned that India was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In view of a 2004 recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child addressing the limited facilities and services existing in India for children with disabilities as well as the limited number of trained teachers working with disabled children, Israel asked how India envisaged using the Convention to implement this particular recommendation. It also asked whether this Convention will serve as a national action plan to better integrate disabled persons into Indian society. 70. Qatar expressed its appreciation of the measures taken by India to meet its challenges without prejudice to human rights and in accordance with the Constitution that guarantees to all citizens, without any discrimination, the right to enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Qatar spoke about India as the home for almost all religions of the world where all sects enjoy the right to establish institutions for religious and educational purposes. Reference was made to the significant role of the National Human Rights Commission of India in laying down a national plan of action for human rights that covers issues like the rights to health, education, food, security, housing and justice. Qatar also mentioned other examples of India’s commitment to human rights, including the adoption of a National Plan for human rights education especially in schools, colleges and universities, the work of thousands of NGOs in India and India’s ratification of international human rights instruments and cooperation with international organizations. 71. Morocco welcomed the efforts made by India in advancing the rights of women and of their empowerment in the political and social fields. Given the importance of Indian communities worldwide, Morocco asked what are the plans and initiatives of India to protect the interests and rights of this community. 72. Following the dialogue, the delegation of India, in their responses, stated that they had listened with attention and respect and would take home the comments and deliberate on them and gain a lot of experience and knowledge. Brazil, Algeria, and Nigeria had referred to India’s phenomenal growth but rightly raised questions about whether this was an all inclusive growth and if the gulf between the rich and poor is not growing. This is one of the greatest concerns of India and every effort is made to ensure there is no disparity between the rich and the poor. Recently, in the budget presented by the Finance Minister, India decided to write off US$ 15 billion worth of farmers’ debt. This is one of the largest schemes undertaken by any government to promote the welfare of its farmers. However, this was not a one time exercise. India is committed to make sustained efforts and coordinated programmes. The growth of India’s economy was phenomenal and one of the engines is the Special Economic Zones. This has led to some agitation in some parts of the country but the accent of the Government is to see that special economic zones bring prosperity to the areas in which they are being set up. There were schemes for rehabilitation, reemployment and community development of the affected people. India remained conscious that the path to reducing disparity was through providing opportunity for both employment and education. In this regard, India stated that it is likely to achieve 100 per cent success in primary education by 2010.