New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday said Mahatma Gandhi’s values and ideals were relevant in any period of human existence and he taught us that our actions should aim at enhancing the dignity and destiny of other human beings.

Mr Kovind made the remarks at the ‘World Youth Conference on Kindness’ organised by the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). “We could place Gandhiji in a time machine and transport him to any period of human existence and we would find him to be relevant. This is also true of the times we live in. Gandhiji remains extremely relevant to our present-day concerns such as the need for peace and tolerance, terrorism and climate change. “The strife and violence that we see in the world today are often based in deep-rooted prejudices. These make us see the world through the binary of ‘us versus them’,” said the President. The event was also attended by Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.

Anantha Duraiappah, director, UNESCO MGIEP, said, “As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s life, the pertinent question we must is how can we move beyond simply having an intellectual exercise of Gandhi’s ideas — especially for the 21st century youth who are diverse, tech-savvy, aware of their rights and demanding agency and change? If real societal change is to be achieved, Gandhi’s learnings, which he meticulously imbibed through his experiments, need to be built into our education systems and exemplified in our daily lives.”

The conference with the theme ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: Gandhi for the Contemporary World: Celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’ witnessed the participation of  approximately 1,000 youth representing over 27 countries including from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.