Conference: Inclusive Education in Chennai

Mere rhetoric on empowerment of the disabled will not make a difference in their lives. A comprehensive plan is required to integrate them into the mainstream, said , today.

Inaugurating the two-day conference on an 'inclusive society' for persons with disabilities, 'Equability', K Venkatasubramanian, member of the Union Planning Commission said the 10th Five-Year plan would concentrate on improving accessibility of the various programmes to rural areas. "The current outreach and extension programmes of different institutions are not enough to cater to the demands of the rural disabled."

Distributing aids and appliances is of little use, as these instruments are very expensive and have low acceptability among users. Instead, the focus should be on integrating children in the field of education. The number of disabled children going under the Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) is very small, and more than half of the districts in the country have no special facilities.To solve the problem, the 10th Five-Year plan will aim at universalisation of elementary education through the IEDC. Every district will be provided with at least one school accessible to rural disabled children.

"Integrated education does not mean just enrolling disabled children in regular schools and stopping at that. These children need special assistance too, therefore there is a need for specialised resource teachers to assist them," said the Planning Commission member.

In order to provide economic rehabilitation to persons with disabilities, vocational training programmes which are employment-oriented will be given special attention. A certain percentage of benefits for the disabled under various poverty alleviation programmes such as the Integrated rural development programmes, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana will be earmarked, so as to provide employment opportunities to the rural poor. The Planning Commission has just prepared a handbook for parents of children with disabilities with details of various welfare projects of State and Central Governments, their projects and policies related to early detection of disabilities and educational programmes.

Source: Tenth 5-yr-plan to help disabled in the rural areas. The Newindpress February 05, 2002, Chennai, India