MIC president S Samy Vellu said the party is on track in realising its vision to transform and uplift the Indian community here.

In his Deepavali message, he said the party achieved this through its mission to organise, motivate and mobilise the community through grassroots programmes and projects.

"Through our party's various social machinery, we have undertaken various programmes and projects to uplift the standard of living of the Indian community," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Samy Vellu, who is also works minister, said women, especially single mothers, who were once without power and hope, have now been empowered to be self-reliant and independent.

"With this, they now have hope for their children and themselves and an opportunity to come out of the poverty cycle and marginalisation," he added.

Social ills

For the youth, Samy Vellu said they now had opportunities to take up skills training in the various government-run skills training institutions.

The MIC president said the party had introduced social recovery programmes to address the ills and issues affecting the Indian community.

"This include carrying out community surveys and analysis and implementing appropriate remedial programmes," explained the veteran politician.

As for education, Samy Vellu said the MIC-run Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology would soon be ready to produce more Indian professionals in the country.

In the next 15 years, he said, it would be critical for Malaysia in the race to achieve the goals of Vision 2020 to turn Malaysia into a developed country.

"Within this period there will be three Malaysia Plans. There will be National Economic Consultative Council III (NECC III) and formulation of the 4th Outline Perspective Plan.

"What will be in store for the Indian community? How should we strategise to ensure the policies and programmes are more inclusive to address concerns of the bottom 30 percent of the Indian community? These are the questions to be answered," he said.