Bikas C Sanyal
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Bikas Chandra Sanyal (Bengali: বিকাশ চন্দ্র সান্যাল; born 15 January 1938) is an Indian educationist, director of the Fondation de la Maison de l'Inde, Cité international universitaire de Paris[1] in Paris. Before assuming this office he was special advisor to the UNESCO Director General and carried on as its adviser until 2014. He served UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning Paris for three decades. He also served as the Vice Chairperson of UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa.[2]
Sanyal is recipient of the highest civilian honor of France Légion d'honneur (from the president of France)[3] and Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (from the President of India).[4] Sanyal has authored a large number of books, reports and monographs.
Sanyal was born in January 1938 in a predominantly rural Islamic community in undivided India. After the partition of India in 1947, he moved to India while his family stayed back in erstwhile East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. Following the usual practice of his family he was sent to Ichapur, West Bengal to live with his uncle for further studies. Due to his excellent academic performance he got a scholarship and admission into the prestigious Presidency College and a place to stay in the Ramakrishna Mission which was founded by Swami Vivekananda. The mission offered him free board and lodging in their Students’ Home in exchange of part-time work with the Home and periodical service in the slum areas of North Calcutta. He organized and administered the Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, West Bengal during 1960–66. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree in economics from Jadavpur University in 1965. After Ph.D. he joined the Iowa State University, U.S. as a postdoctoral researcher. He married Priti Sanyal in 1966 and has two children, daughter Debarati, now a professor of French in the University of California, Berkeley and son Shayan, a software consultant now stationed in London.
Career
Sanyal joined UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning as a faculty in 1969. During his work at the UNESCO IIEP, he worked on the education systems of 77 countries of the world and directed the largest Graduate Employment Survey in the world recorded until 1995. He helped countries of all continents with completely different political systems, to design their higher education strategies. During Cold War, when Poland had a communist regime with central planning system, the Government of Poland, for the first time, accepted the findings of a study under his direction that demonstrated the inadequacy of the central planning system practiced in the Communist world. Poland allowed the results to be published in 1978 within the country. Similarly, he also succeeded in convincing capitalist countries like Philippines and Republic of Korea to change their strategies towards more egalitarian and just distribution of opportunities.
Contributions to India
After retirement from UNESCO in 1998 Dr. Sanyal decided to offer his services free of charge to India thus he took over as the director of the Maison de l’Inde in 1999. He changed the fate of a debt-ridden dilapidated house to a reasonably comfortable maison for the residents and India-loving French community. His wife played a crucial role as the Cultural Attaché of the Maison de L’Inde.,[5] She took charge of promoting India's image in the sphere of culture through various activities. Even after retiring, he served as the special advisor to the director general of UNESCO on a one-dollar contract and continued to serve Africa on problems related to higher education. He still serves the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa for free of charge.
