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Part 49, Issue # 108 -
March 20, 2003
Philately has been
known as the king of the hobbies and to keep it that way efforts of all
concerned are required to sustain the interest of the young collectors in this
hobby. The only way to make the hobby grow is to spread it at the grass roots.
In India, as in other fields so in philately, we need the infrastructure:
national philatelic policy, regulations, a master plan for promotion of
philately, syllabus for a course introducing philately at basic and other
levels, funds, and the manpower to manage it all.
When we were young, we were willingly running around carrying out tasks given by
the senior philatelists. We are not so young anymore and find ourselves still
willingly running around but sadly there are no youngsters around.
A beginning has been made by the India Post by holding district level
exhibitions with support of many local philatelic organizations. The effort of
each and every one of the people involved in these events is to be commended. We
are sure that these efforts will bear fruit soon and once again we will find
lots of youngsters interested in philately.
The Philatelic Congress of India (PCI) in its 25 plus years of existence has
been talking about promotion of philately but these have been mere words with no
action forthcoming. Their sole focus has been more on winning gold medals for a
few people rather than more and more collectors joining the hobby.
Each one of us who is passionate about philately must come together and join
hands to spread philately at the grass roots.
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